


The War Was In Color

by genovianprince



Series: The World Was Screaming In Color [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blind Character, Blind Lance (Voltron), Multi, Polyamory, Superpowers, Trans Lance (Voltron), Trans Male Character, Trans Male Lance (Voltron), empathetic aliens, lions are mysterious beings yo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 06:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14279472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genovianprince/pseuds/genovianprince
Summary: It's time to gather forces against Zarkon -  Team Voltron still need to make more allies and save planets as they work and plan against the Galra Empire, building their strength. One of the planets they save has a race of empathetic aliens, who can sense dissent and secrets among certain people, and it spells disaster for Voltron when the aliens demand that Voltron resolve their issues before they ally themselves. There's lots of things that everyone has been hiding - Lance and Shiro especially. Can they survive the emotional turmoil? Or will they tear themselves apart and plunge the universe into darkness?





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> here you guys go! The beginning of the final installment in The World Was Screaming In Color. It begins with a "beach episode" chapter because we haven't been granted one in the show yet - blasphemy, I say!
> 
> Quick note about Lotor's background - I had nearly all of this story written before s5 and what that revealed to us. So I'll explain a little bit. Zarkon and Honerva's transformation from cute couple to crazy-heads was much slower. There was no putting Honerva in the rift to save her and Lotor. They had a healthy, normal baby and Lotor was about five or so before Zaggar went nuts and tried to, well, you know, destroy the universe. And because of Lotor's sheer long term exposure to the quintessence as their kid, he just gets to live as long as he has, lol.
> 
> But anyway, carry on! Read the cute fluffy beach stuff and have a good time - because it's all downhill from here :) Please R&R my lovlies <3

Shiro had suggested they find a planet to relax on for a day or two. They'd dealt with some serious bull fuckin' shit and honestly, it was probably good for all of the to just take a break from worrying.

Unless a distress call came in, the Paladins got to relax.

Naturally, this meant that things were quiznaked from the start.

 _Agreeing_ on a planet in the first place proved to be exceptionally hard. Lance wanted a beach, Hunk wanted to visit Shay's Balmera (as did Pidge, for some reason), Keith wanted to visit some kind of lava planet - on and on it went, until Coran suggested rolling a several-sided die.

Everyone picked a number, Coran rolled the die to ensure no cheating could be had, and then everyone groaned.

"What, what's the number?" Lance asked, tilting his head. He tried not to be too reliant on Chulatt's eyes outside of battle - it really put some intense strain on his mouse friend, and he didn't want to hurt him.

"It's three. Your number," Hunk said with a sigh.

Lance whooped. "Beach planet, here we come!"

 _Finding_ the planet was the next problem. First, they had to ensure the Paladins could, well, breathe on the surface. Then survive in the water. Then make sure the waves wouldn't crush them because the moons were too close, or something or whatever that Lance didn't listen to. And also make sure the sealife wouldn't eat them.

 _Finally_ , Coran found a planet he deemed suitable that was strangely uninhabited by a sentient species, though Coran said that maybe a species had yet to rise to sentience, like the way the apes had had genetic split thousands of years ago that the humans cropped up from. The planet was just in limbo.

"Keith, you have to tell me how it looks," Lance said as he snuggled him on the couch.

"What about Chulatt?" Keith asked, furrowing his brow.

"He deserves a break too," Lance defended, "Anyway. You'll tell me, right?"

"Of course I will," Keith huffed, leaning into Lance, "I wouldn't, you know, not do that."

"Good. I love you," he said, petting Keith's hair softly.

Keith blushed. "Yeah, I love you too."

\----

Lance frowned as he tried to adjust the swimming trunks and his packer. He wanted to make sure he wouldn't lose it - who knew if he could get a fake human dick in space if he lost his? Sighing as he adjusted it one last time, making sure it was firmly in place, he marched out of his room, towel draped over his shoulders.

It was beach time and he wouldn't let anything get in the way of that.

Keith's eyes narrowed as he looked Lance over. He knew for a fact that Lance's chest couldn't be easily hidden by a large and baggy shirt, especially when it was going to get wet.  Not that they'd even done anything besides sleep beside one another, but Keith had made sure Lance didn't sleep with his binder on because that would not be good.

So seeing Lance's chest as flat as it normally was sent a ton of alarms off in his head.

Before Lance could get to everyone else, he grabbed his boyfriend and pulled him aside. "Are you fucking kidding me, Lance? You're going to wear your binder while swimming?" he hissed under his breath, glaring at him - not that it would have any real effect, but still.

Lance crossed his arms, glaring right back. "Yes," he hissed back, "I'll be fine, Keith. Really. I know my limits. I want to have fun on the beach without being questioned, alright?"

Keith growled softly. "Lance. I know that's bad for your health," he scolded, "What, have you been wearing it while training, too? The armor should do more than enough binding."

When Lance shifted uncomfortably, Keith's face went slack. "You. Fucking. Wear your binder. During training. Are you kidding me?"

"Yes, okay?" he snapped back, "Only sometimes. On days where I feel the worst, okay? Dysphoria fucking sucks and sometimes wearing this, even when it's dangerous, is the only way I can feel like myself!"

"Lance, I don't want to see you get hurt," Keith shot back, stepping into Lance's bubble, "I know that it's bad. I'll admit I don't know everything because I'm a cis guy and I didn't exactly put a ton of effort into looking up trans guy stuff back on Earth, but I sure as hell know you're not supposed to wear it while sleeping or exercising!"

Lance huffed. "I told you, I know my limits," he insisted, "Look, if it gets to be too much, I promise you, I'll take a break on the sand, okay? Really. I don't want to accidentally drown or some bullshit."

Keith rubbed a hand over his face, exhaling sharply. He needed to calm the fuck down. Taking a moment to inhale deeply, he said, "Okay, fine. I know you love the beach. I'm not going to take this away from you or anything. But you have to swear on your life that you'll come out of the water and take a break when you feel too tired or can't breathe, okay?"

"I swear on my life, Keith," he replied quietly. He pulled his boyfriend into a hug, burying his face in his hair. God, Keith smelled nice. "I'll be good, I swear."

"Good," came the muffled reply from Lance's shoulder. "I'm gonna kick your ass otherwise."

"Ooh, kinky."

"Lance!"

\----

Lance didn’t deny himself a happy groan as he ran his bare toes through the sand. It was an odd blue-green color, and the sea itself was a soft, clear purple (he’d wound up bringing Chulatt along after the mouse insisted on being a part of it, and Coran had come up with a special scuba suit for him), but Lance didn’t care. This was the closest to a real beach he’d been since the last break from the Garrison on Earth.

The whole crew were there, all in their swimsuits. Even Coran, though thankfully, instead of a Speedo, he wore one of those weird single-pieces with short sleeves and shorts on it.

At least Lance wasn’t the only guy not going shirtless. It made him feel a lot better. Taking a deep breath, he ran forward into the spray of the sea with an excited yell, diving in below the swell of a wave.

Keith felt his heart seize up at the sight for a moment, but Lance broke the surface with a happy yell, and he relaxed. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that Lance had promised to take care of himself, so while he shouldn't freak out over every little thing, he would definitely keep a careful eye on his excitable boyfriend.

At Lance's beckoning, he rolled his eyes, but carefully waded forward, not venturing further than chest deep so he could bounce with the waves easier. He'd never been to the beach, but he'd been to a pool with generated waves, so he sort of knew how to handle not getting bowled over by the water. He still didn't like going too deep, though.

Lance swam over to him, digging his toes into the sand of the shelf. "Come on, I'll teach you how to swim so you can go out further," he coaxed, taking Keith's hand.

Keith stiffened. "I don't think I want to," he replied stiffly, staring into the distance.

"Whoa, hey, okay," Lance said softly with a squeeze of Keith's hand, "It's okay. I just thought, you know, it's kind of nice out there. I'd like to, you know, try to share with you the thing I loved most in life before space. But if you're really unsure, don't risk it, yeah? Trust yourself. If you know you can't do it, don't. I could probably get Hunk to tell me what the fish look like and everything."

"I didn't say I couldn't," Keith snapped immediately, fire in his eyes as he turned to Lance, who seemed unaffected -  right, because he wasn’t looking with Chulatt. Lance had wanted to give the mouse as much space as possible. Keith's glares _really_ didn't work on him. "So show me then. Teach me how so I can see your fish."

Lance grinned. _Honestly, Keith, you're easier to play than the world's tiniest violin._

While Lance was goading Keith into swimming deeper into the ocean, Shiro threw Allura and then Matt into the water, enjoying their squeals and shrieks of delight. He loved listening to them enjoy themselves, and they kept paddling back for more a few more times until they eventually tried to throw him together - they barely got him out of the water before needing to drop him, but he came up laughing and hearing their laughs, too.

"Good try," he said with a wide grin, taking them both in a hug.

"Not all of us can be beefcakes," Matt teased, slapping Shiro's pec. "Damn, babe, you got beefed up like crazy out here."

Shiro shrugged. "Part of fighting. But look at yourself; you're not exactly a string bean anymore," he teased back, squeezing Matt's bicep gently.

"I'm all lean muscle," he replied, turning to Allura, "Just like you. You really have some good muscle, 'Lura."

She blushed at the praise and gave Matt a kiss on the cheek. "You're sweet." A moment later, she smirked and shapeshifted into the Galra form she'd used before. "But how about now?"

Matt gaped like some of the many fish swimming around them, causing more laughter from Shiro.

"I think if you can do things like that, the bedroom's going to be an interesting place," he said honestly, grinning once he'd gotten his bearings.

Allura chuckled. "Yes, I think so too... But this can be used in many ways," she said with a mysterious grin. Quickly, she reached out and grabbed Shiro, throwing him a few feet away into the water.

He shrieked in surprise, flailing as he sank into the water. Gasping as he broke the surface, he looked to his laughing datemates. Allura had shifted back to normal and she and Matt leaned on each other for support as they cracked up over whatever expression he must have made. He felt very warm and happy in this moment as he swam back over to dunk Allura. He loved them. They made his life so much richer - his whole family did, really, even Lotor (except he was a little more drive-Shiro-up-the-fucking-wall) - but they somehow did it more.

Meanwhile, Hunk was busy trying to coax Lotor into the water.

"It is the same color as my skin!" Lotor protested, "I do not trust it!"

Hunk suppressed a laugh and smiled gently. "Okay, and? Coran tested everything - it should be fine for us to get into. Besides, you'll have fun. Look at everyone else," he said, gesturing. Pidge and Coran floated near each other, chatting quietly; Lance and Keith checked out the fish; Shiro, Allura, and Matt all played water games with each other.

Lotor huffed, crossing his arms. "I am not everyone else," he continued to protest.

Hunk sighed. "Come on, man, for me?" he tried, giving Lotor puppy eyes. Lance always gave in when he did this, and honestly, Lotor and Lance were alike with how extra they were, so maybe this would work.

Lotor stared, trying to get Hunk to back down, but fuck if he wasn't already weak for the yellow paladin. He really wanted to make Hunk happy, and if he could squirm his way into Hunk's heart by swimming, then maybe... He could ask for his hand as a suitor. (He refused to use such juvenile words like 'boyfriend').

Finally (after only three seconds), he sighed and gave in. "Alright," he said as he uncrossed his arms, following Hunk into the waves.

Hunk slipped into the water effortlessly, swimming out to the deep and grinning as Lotor carefully followed.

"Come on, Lotor, nothing's gonna eat you," Hunk coaxed, "You can come farther than that."

Lotor grumbled under his breath, but hesitantly, he kicked his way forward until he bobbed in the sea beside Hunk. "There, are you happy now?" he asked with a small huff.

Hunk rolled his eyes. "I could do without the attitude, but yes," he replied. "You can swim fine; what's the big deal?"

Lotor sighed, shifting to float on the water and let the waves push him back to shore very slowly. "As I said before, it's the same color as me so it's already suspicious," he said in a bored tone, "If you want me to be more honest, however..."

Hunk paddled back over to him, adjusting his headband to get his now wet bangs out of his face. "I'd like that, but you don't have to be," he said gently.

With another sigh, Lotor glanced at Hunk and then gazed resolutely up at the gentle blue sky. "When I was younger, before my parents got addicted to quintessence, we had a beach day with the paladins, similar to this. The water was crystal clear, not even a hint of any color. I should have been noticed right away when I got out too far and began drowning, but I wasn't. I was stuck out there for a long time, just trying to keep my head above water long enough to breathe before the next wave knocked me down. Eventually, Blatyz noticed me and pulled me out. I was sick for nearly a phoeb after that. I was told I'd been out there for the better part of a varga. It felt like a lifetime. Apparently, my parents were too busy necking to notice I'd been gone." He slapped the water angrily.

"Oh, geez, Lotor... I'm sorry," Hunk murmured, "Good for Blatyz to have noticed you though, right?"

"Yes. Lance reminds me a lot of him," Lotor said with a rueful smile, shifting to tread water next to Hunk, "All of you are very alike the paladins of old if I am truthful.  But ever since that day, I've had a hard time with being in water where I wasn't able to stand safely in it."

"Oh, man, if you need to go to shore, that's okay," Hunk rushed to say, feeling guilty for begging Lotor to come out earlier.

Lotor shook his head. "No, Hunk, I'm fine. I know I can trust you if something happens," he said with a soft smile, "I've learned how to keep my head up since then, but having a swimming partner helps."

Hunk blushed, but beamed, and Lotor felt warm, despite the coolness of the sea.

"Yeah. I'm glad you're okay," Hunk finally replied, "Hm. Are you okay enough to have a splash war?"

"Splash war - ?" Lotor tried to question, but suddenly he had a face full of water and he spluttered. "Oh, it is _on_ , as you Humans say!" With a smirk, he shifted and sent a wave of water crashing over Hunk a moment before the ocean's own waves dunked him.

Hunk came up with a gasp and immediately splashed back again, chasing Lotor back to shore. They laughed as they "fought" each other in the water, eventually breaking into a wrestling match when the water was shallow enough.

They rolled up the bach into the soft sand and Lotor wound up pinned beneath Hunk. He found he didn’t really want to move, even though the rational part of his brain was screaming at him to get out, get away, don’t let yourself be exposed like this - but he couldn’t move, staring up at Hunk’s beautiful, laughing face. Fuck, Hunk had Lotor’s wrists both in one hand, pinning them above his head, while Hunk’s free hand held his chest down, and Lotor was pretty sure this was what death felt like right before actually dying because his heart wouldn’t stop beating like crazy, and surely Hunk could feel it with his hand _all over Lotor’s chest -_

Hunk could _definitely_ feel that and his lips parted in shock as he gazed down at Lotor, sort of struck by his beauty. Wait, Lotor was giving him a look? What was that… Like he wanted to kiss Hunk? But… okay, yeah, Hunk couldn’t deny that, not when he could feel Lotor’s heartbeat going nuts, and Lotor looked cute and kind of terrified - if Hunk were honest, he had only passing thoughts about Lotor like that, but they’d definitely made his heart skip beats and knees quiver, so yeah, maybe he was into Lotor too, and if he could get his brain to shut up and stop freaking out for five seconds, then maybe, maybe they could -

And Hunk was leaning down and Lotor was leaning up and their lips met in a soft, sweet kiss.

Lotor felt like he was melting. Hunk's lips were so perfect on his, and the way Hunk had him pinned sent delicious shivers down his spine. His eyes snapped open and he jerked back as reason rushed back into his brain, taking control back from whatever had taken him and told him to kiss Hunk.

"Wait," he gasped, "Wait, Hunk..."

Hunk bit his lip nervously as he stared down at Lotor, realizing he saw fear in his face. "What?" he whispered, "Lotor... I..."

Lotor swallowed and struggled to get free. He did not want this conversation, no sir.

Hunk kept him pinned. "I'm not letting you run from this because you're scared," he said firmly, "If you don't want this, fine, I'll let you go. But Lotor... I really like you."

Lotor.exe has stopped working, please reboot, because what the fuck did Hunk just say to him?!

Hunk bit his lip some more, watching Lotor's expression go slack in shock. "Look, Lotor, if you don't really like me back and just kissed me because the moment kinda seemed like you should, that's fine, I don't want to push you into anything and - "

Lotor's lips returning to his stunned him into silence and he gasped, letting his eyes slide shut as he kissed back again.

"I like you very much, Hunk," Lotor whispered when they parted, leveling Hunk with a serious look, "I would like it if we were suitors. You are... perhaps the kindest person I've ever met. You see people exactly as they are, and you were correct not to trust me in the beginning. But now, you see me... Past all the layers of protection I carefully laid out for myself. When you started to talk to me and coax me out from behind all of the walls, I panicked, but you pulled me out anyway. I trust you so deeply. You make me laugh. You're gorgeous. I adore your cooking and the way you laugh, how you assess a situation, how just being a Paladin, a leg of Voltron, brings you such simple joy... I'd really like to be your partner, Hunk."

Hunk blushed through Lotor's entire speech, open-mouthed with shock. "You... You really think all that about me?" he asked hesitantly.

"Of course. Surely you trust me after all this time," Lotor said with a feeble smile.

Hunk laughed a little. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. You're amazing, Lotor, and I'm so happy that you trust me to tell all these things to. You're... Well, you're an asshole on top of all those layers. But under all that, you care. You care so much. You want to see your own parents taken down, for Pete's sake. That takes a lot of guts. You want the universe to be righted. You care about all of us, you listen to Lance's ramblings for ages, you help Pidge with reading Galran, and you like learning to cook from me? That's just, that's all so cool and I like every bit of it. You're also kinda pretty yourself, but like, your personality and stuff is way more important to me than all that, you know? You're just so wonderful and you hide it, but it's cute, and yes, I'll be your suitor or partner or boyfriend or whatever you wanna call it," he finished with another light laugh, tears of joy gathering in his eyes as he finally released Lotor.

The prince didn't move except to gaze at Hunk in wonder. "Did I hear that right?" he asked faintly, "You actually want to be with me?"

"Yes," Hunk said, grinning as he bent to kiss Lotor again. "Gee, it only took rolling around on a beach for us to confess, huh? I'll never hear the end of this from Lance. he always says about how beaches are the most romantic places in the world."

Lotor let out a surprised laugh. "Yes, well, I'm sure I could find a way to silence him. Perhaps threaten to take spa day away," he suggested, eyes sparkling with fond happiness as he gazed at Hunk. "You're a darling, Hunk, and I'm very happy that you picked me."

Hunk nodded. "I'm happy you picked me, too."

The rest of the beach day was spent splashing around with everyone, eventually devolving into a wild game of chicken. As the sun started setting, Team Voltron dragged themselves up to the beach, out of the water. They splayed out on their large beach towels, laughing and talking about the day. It was a well-deserved vacation. 


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god you guys, i'm so sorry. i totally spaced yesterday on updating ;-; here it is now at least?

Of course, all vacations and good times have to come to an end, and soon Team Voltron was back in the fray, fighting battles and working on ways to defeat Zarkon.

Pidge and Matt hadn't been able to pull any incredibly good information out of Kuron's brain (Lance had hoped Zarkon was stupid enough to detail "here's exactly how to kill me and take down the Galra Empire" in some folder, but alas, real-life villains were rarely like cartoon villains). 

They still had plenty of military paths and plans to disrupt and they worked hard on screwing over the Empire as much as they could before said Empire changed their plans to work around what Voltron knew.

After a particularly tough encounter, Voltron de-formed and everyone sat in their lions on the surface of the planet they'd saved, breathing hard and trying to recover. Thankfully nobody needed a healing pod, but there had been too many near misses. Still, they'd managed to pull through together.

Lance exited his lion first, relying on Chulatt's eyes as he headed for Red so he could see Keith was okay for himself and probably kiss him to death.

"Red, baby, tell Keith is boyfriend is waiting for him!" he yelled up, laughing when he heard Keith's snort over the comms.

"Okay, Lance, I'm coming," Keith muttered, taking an extra few seconds to let his blush go down before he strolled out, removing his helmet and watching Lance do the same.

Lance immediately wrapped Keith in a hug, pressing a gentle kiss to his boyfriend's lips. Keith sighed into it as he held Lance close and returned the kiss. He loved it when Lance did this, honestly - PDA wasn't his thing, at all, but it was nice to be reassured after a battle that they were both okay.

"Again with the gross couple shit," Pidge complained when they pulled away from each other.

"Pidge, how many times do I have to tell you to watch your language?" Shiro said, sounding exasperated.

"I think it's sweet," Hunk defended.

"What, the cursing?" Pidge asked, bewildered.

"No, Keith and Lance," Hunk corrected, shaking his head at Pidge.

With a sigh, Lance let go of Keith, tangling their hands together and turning to give their friends a pout. "Come on, guys, we were having a moment," he whined.

Keith just shook his head.

The aliens they'd saved finally sent their leader to approach them. Chulatt shifted slightly on Lance's shoulder so he could get a good look at them.

They were tall and willowy, reminding Lance instantly of the Olkari, but the similarities ended there. They had midnight-black feathers coating their bodies, sharp claws extending from their hands. Green eyes with cat-like pupil slits sat slightly off-center of their faces to make room for the golden beaks protruding from their faces, wicked and curved. Lance had no idea what they did with all that sharpness, and then the alien opened its mouth to speak and he jumped the sight of tiny, sharp teeth lining the beak and their  _ tongues _ .

"Thank you, Voltron," the leader said, extending the wings from their back and bowing with their whole body.

"Just doing our duty," Shiro said pleasantly, bowing slightly back.

"Welcome to planet Greefar. We are the Greefarrans. My name is Jöter, and I am High Chieftain," they explained, an odd smile somehow curling on the beak. Or maybe it was more in the eyes, Lance thought.

"I am Shiro, Black Paladin of Voltron," he introduced himself, and everyone echoed him.

"Paladins, please, come with us for the day's celebrations. We are already preparing a feast," Jöter said pleasantly.

Shiro glanced at everyone, and at their nods, he accepted the invitation. "Thank you, Jöter," he said, gesturing. 

The Paladins fell into formation and followed Shiro following Jöter to a large building that only faintly reminded Lance of a castle. It was more like a high school, he mused, just with a couple of small towers.

_ Discount Hogwarts _ .

He snickered at his own thought, ignoring the sharp jab of Keith's elbow.

"This is where we hold all our major meetings," Jöter explained as he led them in. "Meetings about laws, war, celebration activities for our holidays, that sort of thing. Feasts are also held here. Sometimes our meetings and parties can go on for quintants, so we have rooms that you're welcome to stay in if you'd like to remain for the entire celebration. It'll last three quintants."

Shiro considered this for a moment. "Why not? We could use another break. If we get a distress call, we'd have to leave immediately, however," he stipulated.

"Of course. We wouldn't dream of keeping you here like that," Jöter said, "There is something heavy we will need to discuss before we join your Coalition, however, though that can wait until morning. The feast is the only part really held in here; the rest of the party will be in the square."

Keith was immediately on guard at hearing that. What was Jöter keeping from them? What did something heavy to discuss mean? Lance's hand on his shoulder steadied him, and he took a deep breath.

"Don't worry until morning," Lance murmured in his ear, "If it was really that bad and urgent, he'd have said so right off."

Keith wrinkled his nose, not believing it, but letting it go anyway. He stayed on his guard all throughout the feast, noting the strange glances they got - that mostly Lance got. He wondered briefly if they knew, somehow, about Lance, and that made them uncomfortable in some way. Oh, they'd regret it if they ever said anything, but thankfully Lance didn't seem to notice, too busy with trying all the new foods and begging Hunk to beg a cook for the recipes. Chulatt probably had noticed and was keeping Lance safe from it for the moment.

He couldn't stop a fond smile weaving its way across his face as he watched Lance's antics. Seriously, he loved him so much, it almost hurt. They still bickered as much as ever, but it was more... light. Their fights could get scary, but then one of them would say something stupid or silly (or filled with innuendo, if Keith were honest with himself), and the tension would dissolve and they'd talk about it.

The changes to their relationship had really done worlds of good and they worked together better than ever before. Keith would even go far as to say that Voltron had really benefited as a whole. 

The next morning, however, would change that. He had no idea of the storm that brewed, what Jöter would do to them tomorrow and how it would break them.

So he went to bed with a small smile on his face, pulling Lance in with him and kissing him senseless before they fell asleep.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope y'all are ready for this.... i know i left you on an evil cliffhanger but at least you only had to wait three days instead of a whole week :> get your tissues ready, is all I'm saying. It's a bit of a rough ride ahead.
> 
> This plot point was inspired by xeah and their fic "we thought we knew (we know nothing)" (how the heck do you link things in notes, omg). Their fic is _amazing_ and I loved the idea of empathetic aliens meddling. But I won't give too much away, so enjoy reading!

The atmosphere in the meeting room as the Paladins entered could only be described as solemn. Jöter sat alone at a small, rectangular table, with only two guards posted at each of the doors.

"Good morning, Paladins," Jöter greeted them quietly, gesturing for them to take their place at the end of the table.

Keith and Lance sat on one side of Shiro (who sat the very end, opposite the High Chieftain), with Hunk and Pidge on the other side.

"What is this about?" Shiro asked calmly, gazing Jöter right in the eyes. 

"This is about the tension we can sense between you," Jöter began, "Greefarrans are an empathetic species. We can sense the bonds you have and the weaknesses therein. Some of you may have noticed the looks from several of our citizens. They sensed it, same as I, but it was not their place to talk to you as you are honored guests and saviors. However, it must be brought up, so here we are."

"Weak bonds? Voltron can't have weak bonds, that's not how it works," Pidge snorted.

Jöter made a movement with his face that Keith would call raising an eyebrow, but without actual eyebrows, he really didn't know how that worked.

"Your bonds are strong," they said patiently, "But they are not as strong as they should be. There is ill will between a few of you, and there are secrets that some of you keep that hold you back from being a true team that trusts each other implicitly."

"We trust each other," Hunk protested, "We may not tell each other everything but some stuff needs to stay private - "

"I am not asking you tell the others of your sexual habits," Jöter interrupted, annoyed, "Or anything that truly private. But there are things that need to be said between you, secrets that must be revealed in order to stop holding Voltron back."

"Can you tell us anything about the secrets?" Shiro asked curiously, "I mean, who isn't saying everything?"

Jöter smiled. "It is for you to tell each other," they continued, "But I will say that you, Black Paladin, are very good at lying and keeping secrets, even from yourself. And you, Blue Paladin, have much hurt in your heart that needs to be resolved, especially with some of your reservations about the Green Paladin."

"Lance, what is he talking about?" Pidge asked, furrowing her brow at him.

Lance clenched his jaw shut, glaring at Jöter. He knew exactly what they were talking about and that was something Lance considered intensely private and not something to share.

"Blue Paladin, you must," Jöter said gently, "All of you must. Each of you holds some hurt, some secret inside that must be told to make you all closer. The Black and Blue Paladins just happen to have the brunt of it."

Shiro stared at Jöter with a faraway look in his eye. He knew what he had to talk about, and he really would rather continue his avoidance of the subject, but if it had to be done to make them a stronger team... Who better to trust than an empathetic species?

"If it helps us take down Zarkon, we'll do it," he said with a tone of finality.

"Shiro! What the hell!" Lance burst out, turning his glare to Shiro, "I'm not telling Pidge anything. No way."

"Lance, that attitude is exactly why you have to," Pidge pointed out, "Jöter just said that those feelings aren't cool, and we need to be the best we can be to end this war."

"Pidge is right," Shiro said gently, "We can discuss this in the Castleship."

"Or we don't discuss it at all, ever," Lance growled.

Keith finally caught on to what Lance wanted to protect so badly. "I agree," he said, glancing at Pidge before turning back to Shiro, "I know exactly what Lance is talking about and I'm behind him when he says that secret shouldn't be told."

"You're only saying that because you get laid," Pidge snorted.

Lance growled. "No, we don't," he said flatly, "We're actually sensible about the fact that doing something like that while in the middle of a war where we're pretty much the only ones who can take down anything of Zarkon's is a bad idea."

"Look, guys, calm down," Hunk pleaded, "I'm sorry, Shiro, but Lance shouldn't have to say what Mr. Jöter is asking him to say to Pidge."

Shiro narrowed his eyes a little. "We will discuss further back in the Castle of Lions," he said firmly, standing. "Thank you, Jöter. I'm sure we will be able to resolve this and become the better team we all know now we can be."

Jöter stood and bowed. "You are welcome. I hope it all works out well," they said pleasantly.

Lance's hands clenched into fists as he stood up, barely restraining himself from doing something seriously stupid. He followed the rest of his team up back to the Castleship that Allura had landed sometime before the feast last night, allowing them to get their lions in and joining them.

"What happened?" Allura asked, furrowing her brow at everyone's expressions. They all ranged from annoyed to extremely pissed off.

"Jöter wants us to tell each other our secrets and resolve tension," Lance hissed immediately, "Tension that wasn't even there until they brought it up!"

"It had to have been there or he wouldn't have sensed it in the first place, Lance," Shiro reminded him, "Look, I'm willing to talk about my issues. We need to do this to make us a stronger team."

"No," Lance vehemently refused. Keith stood resolutely by him. "I'm not telling everyone anything about what Jöter was trying to get me to say. It's  _ my  _ business."

Pidge got right up in his face, scowling. "Yeah, well, apparently it involves you 'harboring ill will' towards me or whatever, so that makes it  _ my  _ business too, Lance. We need to talk about whatever weird hang-up you have about me so Voltron isn't affected!"

"Voltron  _ wouldn't  _ have been affected if Jöter had kept their damn mouth shut!" Lance shot back, "We've been doing just fine until now!"

"But now that it's been brought to light, it obviously needs to be discussed," Allura cut in, "Look at yourselves, almost ready to rip each other apart over this."

Lotor sauntered into the room, ready to welcome Hunk back and see if he could get Hunk to make some of those cookies, but the fight about to break out had him pausing in the doorway. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked innocently.

Lance gave a wordless shriek of anger, stalking off and brushing past Lotor to head to his room. Keith followed him after a moment with a muttered apology to Lotor.

Shiro watched them go with a tight jaw, grabbing Pidge when she tried to run off after them. "He's already angry, Pidge. Just let him cool down and then we can try to talk to him again," he said softly.

She sagged, the anger dissipating quickly. "I don't even know what I did," she whispered. "Why does he secretly hate me or whatever?"

"He doesn't hate you," Hunk finally said, looking at his other best friend sadly, "He's just been really hurt."

"But what did I do to hurt him?" she asked, frustrated, "Can you tell me  _ anything,  _ Hunk?"

Hunk shook his head. "It's Lance's story to tell. I don't think he should have to tell, and he was perfectly happy letting it go and moving on, but that Jöter guy got all up in our business. Lance trusts you and likes you, you remind him of his nieces. We're all a family. He just doesn't want you or anyone else besides me and Keith to know what Jöter is trying to force him to say."

Pidge sighed, rubbing her face. "Yeah, I would have been fine with being ignorant, but now... This is gonna drive me nuts. That bird thing ruined us."

Lotor gave Hunk a questioning look. "Geefarrans, right? Empathetic species?"

Hunk nodded.

"Oh dear..."

Shiro sighed. "Let's all just... try to relax and think about what Jöter wants us to come clean about so we can bond further," he murmured, "Hopefully we can convince Lance to as well... I don't know how this is going to affect us." They needed to do this to strengthen their bonds as a team; Jöter had said so. He didn’t know how he was going to talk about his problems (he only just barely started to acknowledge he  _ had _ problems anyway since he’d been called out alongside Lance), so focusing on the rest of the team first made it easier.

"I just hope there aren't any distress calls," Hunk mumbled, knocking on a wood carving of his lion he'd taken to carrying around after he'd been given the gift by the Olkari. "Knock on wood..."

"One of your Human superstitions to avoid jinxes and bad luck, correct?" Lotor clarified.

Hunk nodded again, leaning into Lotor's side. Lotor slipped an arm around his suitor, smiling slightly.

"I wouldn't worry, darling," he murmured, "I'm sure this will be resolved in no time."

"One can only hope," Allura sighed, gazing at the door where Keith and Lance had exited. 

\----

Lance paced the length of his room angrily, twisting his fingers together and wishing, not for the first time, that he'd had some of his fidget toys he'd left back on Earth. 

"I can't believe that they're pushing this so hard," he ranted, "Can't they just  _ trust  _ me? I have never let the way I was hurt by Pidge get in the way of Voltron, and now that - that stupid fucking bird man just bursts and decides that they can choose what we do? They couldn't have left everything vague so I could just, I dunno, come up with a lie? They just  _ had  _ to spew that I didn't exactly trust Pidge with knowing my 'secret'. It's totally unfair to call it a secret, too - there's nothing wrong with me wanting to not let anyone know  _ what  _ kind of guy I am or what's in my pants! Seriously, where do they get off?"

Keith sat on the bed, watching him and nodding along. "I understand, Lance, really. It's okay," he said, trying to figure out what to say to get Lance to calm down.

"It's not okay," Lance snapped, turning abruptly and accidentally kicking the wall. "Augh! Who moved the wall?!"

Keith couldn't stop his snort, covering his mouth.

"Laugh it up," Lance grumbled, taking a deep breath and trying to relax. "I'm just so freaking mad, Keith, I... I put a lot of work into being me, into not letting anyone think I was anything other than a cis guy, but now... That guy forced a rift that could have just stayed down and I..." His anger dissolved, leaving behind sadness as he realized what had to happen if he ever wanted to save the universe and return to Earth.

"I don't want to do this," he whispered, padding over to the bed and plopping sideways in Keith's lap. 

He grunted, slipping his arms around his upset boyfriend and resting his chin on Lance's shoulder. 

"I know," he said simply, pressing a soft kiss to the underside of Lance's jaw. "There's gotta be a way to avoid it. Maybe there's something you can say to sooth Pidge's nerves over this and just let it go, right?"

Lance let out a soft sob. "No, I don't think so," he whispered, "Those guys'll know and who knows, maybe they'll start spreading rumors about Voltron being unstable and then where would we be? I have to do this. I don't want to do this... But we have to." Tears rolled down his cheeks as he started to come to terms with what this could mean for him.

Keith rubbed his back. Lance was right, and he  _ hated  _ it. He only knew about Lance because Lance had  _ trusted  _ him.

Lance let himself cry into Keith for awhile, upset and hurting. Keith just held him, humming softly like Lance had done for him and others before. Finally, Lance sighed and stood up, rubbing his face.    
  
"I hate this," he muttered.   
  
Keith stood up and moved Lance's hands to giving him a soft kiss. "Me too. I don't like seeing you hurt like this," he whispered, looking Lance in the eye. It wouldn’t quite affect him right, even with Chulatt peering at him, but he tried anyway. "You're mine, okay? If Pidge or Shiro do anything, I'll kick their asses."   
  
Lance snorted. "I'm sorry, did you say you'd kick Shiro's ass? Have you seen him? He'd wreck you in two seconds flat," he said with a small laugh, "But okay, I get the sentiment, hun. Thank you."   
  
Keith smiled slightly. "Good. Now come on... We need to get some lunch, and then maybe we'll talk to them. Give you some time to come up with something to say," he said gently, squeezing Lance's hand. "I bet Hunk already has something whipped up."   
  
Lance smiled. "Yeah, you're right. Lemme wash my face first," he said, trotting off to the bathroom. He washed his face in cold water, hoping that the swelling and red eyes went down.   
  
Thankfully, they only found Hunk and Lotor in the kitchen when they walked in.   
  
"Hey guys," Hunk chirped, "Lotor's been helping me re-create some of the stuff from last night's feast."   
  
"Ooh, like what?" Lance asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He'd enjoyed everything from the celebratory feast and any of it was already 100% better than food goo. He didn't want to waste Chulatt's energy on looking at food when he didn't have to - he always saved Chulatt for battles or important meetings. (Or if he really wanted to stare at Keith's eyes).    
  
Hunk started listing off a few of the dishes and Lance quivered with anticipation, nearly drooling. Keith rolled his eyes at Lotor, causing the other to snort.   
  
"Excitable fellow," Lotor murmured to Keith, but he watched Hunk with a fond smile on his face.   
  
"Yeah, but he's my 'excitable fellow'," Keith said, watching Lance with the same expression. "Yours isn't any better."   
  
"Yes, but that one's mine," Lotor said smugly.   
  
Keith snorted.    
  
Everything stopped when the rest of the Castleship's residents showed up at the enticing smells from the kitchen. Lance sensed the tension suddenly in the air and sighed, shoulders drooping.   
  
"Lance - " Pidge started, but Lance threw up a hand to stop her.   
  
"I'll tell you," he said a little brokenly, "Just... after lunch, okay?"   
  
"I'm proud of you, Lance," Shiro said warmly.   
  
"Wait until it's your turn," Lance snapped a little, metaphorical feathers ruffled by that. "This isn't easy, okay?"   
  
Hunk squeezed Lance's shoulder in a steadying way and Lance shuddered. "Let's just eat, please," Lance finally said, going to sit at the table.   
  
Keith and Lotor took their places on either side of Lance while Hunk finished getting the dishes. He served it and Keith helped Lance navigate his plate for a moment before letting him go on his own.   
  
Lunch was silent and foreboding. Lance tried to enjoy the food, but it just felt like dust in his mouth.    
  
"I really don't want to do this," he finally said once it sounded like everyone was at the end of the meal, "The  _ only _ reason I'm saying anything is because of that pretentious feathered bonehead.”

Keith squeezed Lance's hand in support and Lance took a deep breath, grateful he didn't have to watch their reactions.

"Okay, so, look, the thing that Pidge hurt me about is something really personal and private and... Yeah. Cuz like I don't want it to change the way you guys see me or treat me or anything, but it might, and I'm kinda terrified about that, but I guess I better just say that I'm trans anyway because if I don't things really will get fucked up and yeah, okay, I'm a trans guy," he rambled, trying to just nervous-word-vomit himself into getting it out. "So, I mean, yeah, I never wanted to say anything cuz I just wanted to be taken as cis, you know? Unquestioned. I just didn't want to be treated differently or anything cuz some people start to misgender you when they find out cuz they take it wrong even when they support you and I just, yeah, I'm shutting up."   
  
There was silence for a few beats.   
  
Shiro was absolutely mortified at himself for forcing this on Lance. He felt sick to his stomach. That was definitely a big thing and he'd been... well, a total jerk. He had no doubt that Matt would rip him a new one for this. Shiro couldn't imagine how Lance must have felt, all because of Jöter and him for enforcing Jöter's demands.   
  
"Lance, I'm so sorry," he whispered eventually.   
  
Lance let out a deep sigh, sagging against Keith. "You didn't know. Obviously. I don't blame you, Shiro; you were just trying to be a good leader and make sure all of us were happy. But, like, next time, could you just  _ trust _ us when we say it's okay?"   
  
Shiro nodded. "Of course."   
  
Allura frowned. "I'm sorry, but your word... trans? It's not translating properly. I assume it's some sort of lingo?"   
  
"Oh! It just means, err, I am not what I was assigned at birth. Humans look at a vagina and say you're a female, and then a penis and say you're a male, but some of us feel differently to that, so we're trans," Lance explained briefly, "So bodily I'm typically what's considered female, but in here, I'm a guy." He tapped his head.   
  
"Oh, we had people like you on Altea," Coran said brightly, "Though it was easier with shapeshifting abilities to feel comfortable in your own skin... I can't even imagine what it must be like to feel sickened by your own body and unable to really fix it."   
  
"What did you think my weekly shot from you was for?" Lance asked rhetorically, "I mean, I know you thought I just had a deficiency, but..."   
  
"Oh, I see now," Coran murmured.   
  
"But wait, what did I do to hurt your feelings?" Pidge asked, furrowing her brow, "I never even knew, so I didn't say anything misgendering... And I definitely never compared you to a girl."   
  
Lance sighed. "Well, look... It's all because of my own stupidity and naiveté," he started again.

Hunk frowned. "You're not stupid," he interrupted.

Lance really wanted to say that yes, he was, his feeling for this were completely irrational, but he didn't want an argument, he just wanted to get this all out of his head while he still had the damn courage. He exhaled forcefully.   
  
"Anyway, Pidge, when you started at the Garrison, I thought you were like me. A trans guy. Just, you didn't have T or anything yet but you were going for it anyway," he started once more, "So I thought, hell yeah, someone I can relate to, someone I know I can support, because the Garrison sure as hell didn't have any LGBT clubs or anything for kids like us. No Facebook groups or anything. So I thought, hey, two-of-a-kind, we're gonna be awesome. 'S why I went so heavy on the 'man' and 'dude' stuff, trying to make you feel right and validate you and stuff.   
  
"So then, like, I didn't come out to you then because you acted like you never needed anyone like that, so I figured, if he thinks I'm just cis, that's okay too, as long he knows I have his back." He pause to take a shuddering breath. "So then... We got shot into space and you said you were a girl and my thoughts totally scrambled. I couldn't believe it. All this time, and you just... You just were playing  _ Mulan. _ And you never - never said anything despite the hints I dropped, the supplies I left around for you, or anything, and I told you it was stupid, okay, because what kind of idiot is hurt by something like  _ that _ ."   
  
"You're not an idiot," Keith responded automatically, "Though I might have to call you that if you keep calling yourself that.”   
  
Lance snorted. “But yeah, I know it’s irrational, but I just… Felt really stupid. Like you didn’t even care about the struggles of people like me and you just went and did that… I know it was because you wanted to find Matt and everything, but still, I just… Like I said, it’s irrational.”

Pidge stayed silent for a moment, feeling the weight of the words crash over her. Her jaw clenched as anger swept through her over it and she stood abruptly, glaring at Lance.   
  
Lance's only indication of her reaction before she burst into a tirade was the sound of her chair clattering to the floor.   
  
"Are you fucking kidding me, Lance?" she asked viciously, " _ Just playing Mulan _ ? Where do you get off with that bullshit? I'm  _ not _ Mulan, and I'm  _ not _ some kid obsessed with Disney. I had to do a bunch of things to get undercover in order to find out what the fuck happened to  _ my family _ . Matt and Dad were both dead to the Garrison, but I knew that wasn't right, so I had to sneak in and figure out how to get them back."   
  
Lance winced, but Pidge wasn't anywhere near done.   
  
"Do you think I  _ liked _ what I had to do? You seriously are making this all about yourself and how  _ you _ feel? I didn't want to do what I did, but I had to save my family. Being a boy only made that easier - I could look around and see where Matt had been and see if I could find anything in his old room without someone getting pissy with me for being a girl in a guy area."   
  
Fuck, her voice was breaking.   
  
"I'm not going to apologize for what I did so I could save my family, Lance. I'm still missing my father. My  _ only _ mission back then was to save them, and I'm still working on it. I had to do  _ so much _ just to be able to get back onto Garrison property after I was banned because I knew they were lying, and I knew something other than 'pilot error' had happened, not after the way Matt had praised Shiro's abilities. I was there to find my family. I thought that was something important to you. So don't blame  _ me _ and the Garrison's lying about what happened to  _ my  _ family for how  _ you _ felt."   
  
She turned and stomped off, breathing heavily.   
  
Lance swallowed, burying his face in his arms on the table and shuddering. He wouldn't cry right now, no fucking way. Every point Pidge had made cut him deeply because he completely understood her and where she'd been coming from. He didn't blame her for his feelings, at least, he hadn't thought so, but he could see how it sounded like that. He'd even said he was being irrational. He still felt a little angry anyway, mainly for the way she'd blown up, but even then he couldn't blame her.    
  
The only person he could blame was Jöter for forcing them into doing this.

Keith's hand wound its way into Lance's hair, comforting him a little.   
  
"I fucking knew this was a bad idea," Lance murmured, "Stupid fucking bird guy."   
  
"Well," Matt started, gazing after his sister, "It sounds like there was a lot of built up pain there... I don't like that he forced you guys to talk about it like this, but I'm glad you are. I'm gonna go after her and see if I can get her to calm down so you can talk about this a little more... rationally." He smiled weakly and stood, following Pidge.   
  
Shiro rubbed a hand over his face, wishing he could reverse this. Or at the very least help them heal after this mess he'd helped to create. Allura gently took him the arm and led him away, saying something about needing to call Kolivan.   
  
Lotor rested a hand on Lance's back as the Paladin finally started to cry, feeling crushed beneath the weight of what he'd done. He'd hurt Pidge, probably compromised the  _ fuck _ out of Voltron not too long after he'd finally gotten Blue back, and he just felt so small.   
  
Hunk took up everyone's lunch plates and tossed them in the sink, sitting across from Lance and taking his hand comfortingly.   
  
"I'm so sick of - of screwing up," Lance whispered, feeling warm at the support of his friends and boyfriend, "I didn't mean to, like, blame her for wanting to find her family or something... I just... Said what I felt, I guess? Stupid birdman."   
  
"I didn't think about that either," Hunk admitted, "Like, the whole reason  _ why  _ she was doing it that way and stuff. I figured it was just like, a spy thing."   
__  
Lance looked up and nodded at Hunk. "Yeah. I didn't put all that... depth to it, about needing to search Matt's old room  _ as _ a guy to make it easier or anything. I didn't think she was  _ really _ doing it to directly hurt me or other trans guys either, I just... Logically I knew. Heart-wise I didn't." __  
  
He sighed deeply, leaning into Keith. Lotor let his hand drop.   
  
"It seems to me that neither of you really looked at the person's side of the issue," Lotor said carefully, "Your feelings  __ are valid, but so are Pidge's. You both should apologize for focusing too much on yourselves."

Lance sighed again. "Yeah. I'm gonna wait until she's not ready to rip my head off, though."   
  
"That would be wise," Lotor said sagely, a smirk pulling at his lips.   
  
"Smart-ass," Lance grumbled.   
  
Keith chuckled once. "He's smirking at you."   
  
"I know."   
  
Keith pressed a kiss to Lance's temple. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that," he said softly, "I'm always here for you, though. I'm pretty sure Pidge will cool off soon and Matt knows you never meant for it to sound like blame or anything. He'll be able to talk some sense into her. He's pretty good at that."   
  
Lance nuzzled Keith's shoulder. "Yeah? Good. Thanks, Keith," he whispered.   
  
"You're welcome, Lance."   



	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, you definitely need your tissues this chapter. (sorry it's almost _not_ uploaded on Friday, pals, but I had a very busy day). there's a lot of heavy discussion (as if there wasn't last chapter, lmao) and it's, uh, yeah. and the next chapter will be a doozy as well. seriously, go and buy like, 3 boxes of tissues. at least. but hopefully it's actually interesting and not just painful?  <3 Please R&R and I'll see you on Tuesday!

Matt knocked on Pidge's door and opened it at the muffled "come in". Pidge had buried her face in her pillow and the room looked more clean than Matt had ever seen. Right, he'd nearly forgotten she angry-cleaned.   
  
Carefully tip-toeing around the "trash floofs", he sat next to her on the bed and patted her back. "Hey, Katie."   
  
"Hey, Matt," she mumbled into the pillow, sitting up and hugging it to her chest. "I don't - how could he just focus on himself like that?"   
  
Matt squeezed her shoulder. "In case you forgot, Pigeon, he said he knew it was irrational and he never even wanted to talk about this in the first place," he pointed out, "But that Jöter guy forced him to. You did have good points, but your delivery could have used a little tweaking." He nudged her with a small chuckle.   
  
She sighed, pushing her glasses up her nose. "I know I shouldn't have yelled like that, but I just felt so  _ angry _ . I didn't know anything about him being that or the kind of stuff that I guess I was doing that hurt him. I just wanted to figure out what happened to you and dad. Mom got so depressed... And then I got myself stuck in space too and I'm sure she got worse, and I don't even know...." She sucked in a breath, starting to cry.   
  
Matt gently removed the glasses and pulled her into a hug. "I know. It's gonna be okay, Katie," he murmured, "We'll get to go home one day,  _ with _ Dad, and we'll surprise the heck out of her."   
  
She sobbed into his chest, clinging to him. "We'll probably give her a freakin' heart attack," she said with a small laugh.   
  
Matt snorted. "Maybe. Shh," he murmured, rubbing her back. "It's gonna be okay."   
  
Pidge cried for a while, pulling away when she finally felt a little better and rubbing her face. "Ugh. I feel so bad for yelling at him. Neither of us thought about... well, each other, I guess. But I  _ couldn't _ have. It's not like I knew?"   
  
"He didn't know about you either, until not too long after you got shot into space," Matt pointed out, "I'm pretty sure he never gave himself any room to process what that meant, too busy trying to keep  _ himself _ a secret in the close quarters of the castle, and with mind-melding in Voltron and stuff."   
  
Pidge nodded, sighing. "Yeah."   
  
"You both need to talk about it and apologize, I think," Matt finally said, "Both of you were hurt and kind of thoughtless. I know Lance didn't mean to sound like he was blaming you for wanting to find your family or something. He was just... forced to explain shit that he didn't  _ want _ to."   
  
Pidge nodded again. "I... yeah. He could have phrased it better, but so could I have done..." She sighed. "I never meant to, like, disparage the struggle of trans people or anything. As far as I could tell, nobody even cared if I  _ was _ so... But now I see a bunch of things Lance did in a different light. Like keeping tampons and pads on hand and stuff. I thought it was just cause he got laid a lot or something, or all his sisters and nieces got him in the habit… I definitely appreciated that he left a bunch of them for me.”   
  
“I think you need to tell him that, too,” Matt advised. “I think you guys will be okay now that it’s all out and you guys are calmed down.”   
  
“Yeah, I will. Thanks, Matt. You’re the best brother,” she said, hugging him tightly. “Even though I have, like four more older brothers now.”   
  
Matt laughed, hugging her back. “Yeah, well, family sticks together, right?”   
  
“Right.” Pidge grinned up at him. “Now give me my glasses back!”   
  
“They were  _ mine _ first!” He pushed her down to the bed and started tickling her.   
  
Pidge just laughed, struggling weakly to get away from Matt’s fingers. “Shut up!”   
  
\----

After a few hours of trying to figure out what to say and how to talk to each other, Lance and Pidge hesitantly met up alone in one of the common areas.   
  
"Hey," Pidge murmured, sitting next to Lance on the couch.   
  
"Hey," Lance muttered back, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, or-or sound like I was blaming you for my problems, or anything like that. I get where you're coming from with what you did. Hell, all I want is to see my family again, but at least I know they're safe... You didn't have that luxury. I didn't mean to act like you were just a kid, either. I know damn good and well that you're not. You're a strong, independent woman who don't need no man." His lips quirked up as he tried to ease the tension with a joke.   
  
Pidge laughed lightly. "Yeah, okay, apology accepted, you big jerk," she said, elbowing him, "Look, I... I didn't mean to yell at you. It just felt so... gross. Like I was being attacked. But I know it wasn't really your fault; you were forced into a shitty situation. And I... wish that what I did back at the Garrison hadn't hurt you. I didn't realize that any of those things you were doing were like, hints or whatever. I was busy trying to hack everything. Yeah. I appreciated it all anyway. I had a hard time getting a hold of 'supplies' and you always spoke with such conviction when you asserted my guy persona, it just... helped me stay undercover. But... I  guess you'd know how that feels, except it's not a cover for you. It's just  _ you _ . I'm sorry that I kinda... treated it so blasé."   
  
Lance hugged her. "You're forgiven, Pidge, seriously. Thank you. You're still a pretty good little sister," he said, ruffling her hair.   
  
"And you're still an annoying older brother," she grumbled, not even batting his hands away like she normally did. "If anyone ever misgenders you, though, I'll kick their asses, I promise."   
  
Lance threw back his head and laughed. "Thanks, Pigeon," he managed to choke out through his peals of laughter, "But you'll have to take a number behind Hunk and Keith."   
  
"Psh, they'll have to beat me to it. I'm small and fast," she said, laughing with him.    
  
"Yeah, but Hunk could knock you down, and Keith would knock you  _ out _ ," Lance snorted.   
  
"Well,  _ someone _ has to stay by your ass so it doesn't get kicked, and I think Keith would be better at that. Unless you're into that kind of thing, in which case Keith would definitely be the only one doing that," she replied with a smirk.   
  
"Pidge!" Lance shrieked, "We're not like that yet!"   
  
" _ Yet _ ."   
  
"Oh, go eat your laptop!"   
  
"How did that even make sense?"   
  
"Well, I wasn't gonna say eat ass, cause you would have just made another joke about Keith and I." Lance huffed, crossing his arms.   
  
Pidge snorted and laughed again. "Okay, okay, I'm done. We... We're okay, though, right?"   
  
"Yeah. We're okay, Pidge. Maybe tone it down on the sex jokes, though."   
  
"Gotcha."

\---

A much more relaxed and happy pair of friends walked out of that room together, laughing and joking.

The relief that everyone else felt was immediate when Lance and Pidge showed up where they all were.

"Glad to see you guys are okay," Hunk chirped.

"Yeah, I'd be glad to see at all," Lance teased, dropping onto the couch beside Hunk, who facepalmed and groaned.

"You have Chulatt with you," Pidge pointed out, yelping a second later when Lance tapped her shin with his cane.

"The poor thing's exhausted from earlier," Lance said, "He deserves a break." Lance really didn't want to rely too much on the mouse, either, despite the bit of freedom it gave him. He couldn't bear it if something happened to Chulatt because Lance got too crazy with drawing on his eyeball energy or whatever.

"Okay, well, who's going to go next?" Keith asked, shifting so he was sitting on Lance's other side.

Silence.

"Well, okay, I guess I'll try," Hunk offered, "I just don't know what Jöter thinks I'm hiding? I mean, I don't actively try to hide anything. I'm already kinda out because you guys know I'm dating Lotor."

Lotor smirked from his position on Hunk's other side, squeezing his lover's hand.

"So yeah, I guess I could say outright I'm pan? It's never really been an issue since I have two moms, so there was no big 'coming out' issue," Hunk rambled, "And uh, I guess I could say that that Sal guy from the first Space Mall we visited was kinda hot. Hm... I miss Earth, but we all do. That's nothing new? Uh, oh, I could tell you guys about why I love cooking so much? I-I'm really not sure what that Jöter considers a secret...

"But yeah, Tina runs a restaurant that superficially looks like a tourist Tiki Shack, but you know it's good because all the locals eat there. And Mama, well, she's an engineer, so I guess you could say they both really influenced everything I ever wanted to be. So Tina let me help out once I was ten years old in the kitchen and I loved spending the lunch rush with her learning how to cook everything, and then on the weekends Mama, once I was, what, 12? Took me into her job to teach me things, so yeah.

"Cooking started becoming more of a family thing after a while, and then engineering fascinated me, so I decided to go into it, and the Garrison was... the only school that accepted  me, so I went there, even though I was never into the idea of flying and going into space because of how sick I got, but I'm better now, so there's that."

Hunk didn't know when he'd started crying, but he noticed it now that he'd paused to take a breath. Lotor watched him with shock for a moment before he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and gently dried Hunk's tears.

"S-Sorry, I just... I really miss them," Hunk said quietly, "They were so supportive of me. I miss Earth so much. I don't like to talk about it, though... Cause then I start crying and stuff... And we c-can't go back for a long time anyway, so what's-what's the point of talking about it if... if I'm just gonna get really upset and stuff?"

"Hunk... you're supposed to talk about it," Lance said hesitantly, "Like, we all share stories from home, right? About our families and things we miss, even if we get sad. The memories make us happy, and we're all in this together, right? Come on, I know you listen to me ramble on for ages and ages, you're supposed to ramble back."

Hunk shook his head. "No, I'm just the support for you guys. I'm the leg of Voltron. I'm supposed to lift you up, not put you down," he insisted.

"Dude, Hunk, I've never heard you talk this much about yourself," Pidge said flatly, "Support is a two-way street. You can't be the one taking on everyone's problems without unburdening yourself, too."

Hunk hiccuped a little. "But..."

"No buts," Keith cut in, staring at him across Lance, "Come on, Hunk. We're all in this together, like Lance said. It's not fair to you to let yourself bottle up like that. Thinking about Earth makes me sad, too, but I still talk about with you guys. And maybe... we'll learn to be a little less sad if we all talk about it together."

Hunk smiled faintly and Lotor shifted to pull Hunk against his chest, image be damned, his lover needed comfort.

"They're right, you know," Lotor pointed out, resting his chin on Hunk's head. "You should reminisce with them and be open about your life back then. All of us will be here for you, even if I do not understand about ninety percent of what you talk about. Tourist tiki shack? What even is that?"

"I'll try," Hunk said with a bit of a laugh at Lotor's words, "And I'll explain it later."

Allura glanced to Lotor and he nodded; yes, he would tell her after Hunk told him.

Lance reached over and attempted to squeeze Hunk's hand, but he only got a handful of Hunk belly as he didn't realize just how much Hunk's position had shifted.

Hunk laughed hard and batted Lance's hand away.

"Oops," Lance said with a sheepish grin, "I was trying to be a supportive best friend, I swear!"

Shiro chuckled at their antics, just letting himself absorb all that was going on. He liked hearing his team open up to each other and bond. It was nice.  He was still avoiding thinking about anything to do with his turn.

Keith snorted, elbowing Lance. "I guess I'll go," he volunteered. "Uh..." Shit.

Lance bit his lip, shifting to pull Keith against his side. "Come on, man, we're all cool here. We all need to do this, so... Whatever it is, we're behind you," he coaxed.

Keith shuddered as the gravity of the situation hit him fully. He'd have to finally say the thing he'd been avoiding talking about for ages. He caught Matt's narrowed eyes and winced.

"You never told them," Matt said. It wasn't a question.

"No," Keith sighed, "But I'm telling them now."

Matt crossed his arms.

"What's he talking about, Keith?" Lance asked warily.

Keith reluctantly met Shiro's eyes. This would hurt to tell his practical brother as much as it would hurt to actually tell Lance, too. He inhaled sharply at the gentle look in Shiro's eyes. God, he didn't deserve any of how kind Shiro and Lance were to him.

"I... well, remember the day Lotor saved our asses, before he ever became our ally?" Fuck, he really didn't want to do this... But he'd be damned if he let Lance and Hunk suffer alone in this.   
  
Lance nodded. "Yeah. We all thought  _ you _ had done it somehow," he said with a chuckle.   
  
"Yeah, well, that's the thing," Keith mumbled. "Look, I.... When I was going to destroy that force field... My plan was to sacrifice myself by hitting the thing head on."   
  
Lance blinked. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"   
  
Keith exhaled harshly. "I said I was going to sacrifice myself by exploding my goddamn ship on the thing so it would bust apart," he said again, voice cracking, "I weighed the options and I said 'if only one more person dies here, let it be me'. Because Voltron had all its paladins and we were  _ so close _ to killing Zarkon and saving the universe. You know I have nobody waiting for me on Earth. Everyone who cares about me is in this room, except Kolivan, who treats me like a weird son, but whatever."   
  
Soft gasps echoed through the room.   
  
Lance  _ wanted _ to yell at him. He really, really wanted to. But after he asked Chulatt to let him see Keith, how his boyfriend had hunched over, hugging himself,  _ cowering _ , he couldn't find it in him to give Keith a yelling worthy of a Molly Weasley Howler.    
  
"Keith... I'm so mcfreakin' happy that didn't happen," Lance whispered, reaching out to squeeze Keith's shoulder, "I totally get it. I'm really upset that you were ever put in that position to think that way, but I get it. And I'm so happy that you're still here with us, because I love you way too much."   
  
Keith looked up into Lance's face, seeing the soft emotion there - the worry, a bit of anger, but mostly just  _ love  _ and  _ care.  _ "I love you too," he replied, voice cracking again, "I'm so happy that I... I got to live to have this with you." He shifted so he sat in Lance's lap, limbs wrapping around him like a clingy koala.   
  
Lance hugged him back, burying his face in Keith's shoulder and breathing in his scent deeply. No dwelling on what-ifs, that was his new rule, because Keith was warm and real and alive here in his arms, not dead, splattered in space like he could have been, so just enjoy him here and love him.   
  
Shiro also really wanted to yell at Keith for that, but understanding twisted in his gut, because he knew he'd do the exact same thing if it came to it.   
  
"Keith...."   
  
Keith looked up, steadying himself for the disappointment, the anger, the  _ how-could-you-think-so-little-of-yourself _ lecture, but when he met Shiro's eyes, all he saw was warm understanding and pain.   
  
"Yeah?"   
  
"I'm glad you're still here, too." Shiro smiled lightly.    
  
Keith smiled back.   
  
"Does this mean that I technically saved both Keith and Shiro from certain death?" Lotor asked in a drawl, "Since without Keith continuing to exist after that, Shiro would never have be saved. And then none of you would actually be having happy relationships right now. I believe a 'thank you' is in order."   
  
Hunk elbowed him and laughter broke the tension in the room.   
  
"Yes, Lotor, thank you for saving my amazingly stubborn boyfriend," Lance said teasingly, kissing Keith's temple.   
  
Keith grunted and refused to say anything.   
  
"So, who's torture is next?" Hunk quipped.   
  
"I guess I'll go," Pidge sighed, leaning into Matt.

Matt wrapped an arm around her encouragingly. "You got this, sis," he said lightly.

"See, that's exactly part of the problem," Pidge said, rubbing a hand over her face. "I'm tired of being put into boxes like that. I'm the little sister, I'm the kid, the techie, whatever. I know I tricked the Garrison, but damn, did you guys all forget it was a  _ college _ ? I'm not a literal kid genius, I'm just really short. You act like I'm 14 but newsflash, I'm 19!"

Lance's jaw dropped.    
  
"Yeah. So like, maybe you guys could stop acting like I'm 14? It  _ sucks _ . I'm an adult same as the rest of you, and I'm only the youngest by, like, four months?"   
  
"I had no idea you were 19," Hunk said, flabbergasted, "I thought you were a kid genius."   
  
Pidge snorted. "Yeah, you and everyone else apparently. Maybe that's my 'secret'," she snickered, "Hey, at least I could still order the kid's meals, I guess?"   
  
Shiro couldn't stop a snicker. "I thought you said you didn't  _ want _ to be treated like a kid," he said dryly.   
  
"I don't, unless it can get me free meals!"   
  
Lance laughed softly. "Okay, so, be more appreciative of you instead of just calling you the kid tech genius? Am I still allowed to call you a little sister?"   
  
Pidge hummed in pretend thought, making Lance pout.   
  
"Honestly, you all are my family now. And I'm sorry that I put you in that box, Pidge... I'm just used to, you know, a zillion people around me, all my family, being chill all the time. So I kinda missed it and yeah, that's why Coran's like the uncle, Shiro's the dad, you're the sister, and I am sorry that it felt like I was putting you in that box and not letting you be anything else," Lance said softly.   
  
"It wasn't just you, Lance, but thank you anyway," Pidge said with a crooked grin. "I'm sorry that all of us fuck-ups are your only choice for family out here, though."   
  
"Language," Shiro rebuked automatically, but he didn't stop smiling. At least, for a few moments. "Wait, did you say I'm the  _ dad _ ?"   
  
Matt laughed. "Yeah, Daddy," he said, smirking at Shiro, who blushed.   
  
Allura furrowed her brow in confusion before it clicked. "Matt!" she shouted, scandalized for all of five seconds before she collapsed into a fit of giggles.   
  
Keith made a disgusted noise along with Pidge, Lotor rolled his eyes, and Lance and Hunk joined Allura in laughing at Shiro's discomfort.   
  
"Coran is the uncle, Shiro's the dad, Matt and Allura... you guys are in that weird spot of being friends but also step-parents since you're married to Shiro," Lance ticked off, snickering as they choked at the word 'married', "Pidge, Hunk, and I are all the siblings-slash-kids, Keith's also a kid but he's dating me, and Lotor is... Hmm, creepy uncle."   
  
"Creepy? Excuse me?"   
  
"Yeah, you're ten thousand years old, dating a 20 year old Hunk, totally creepy," Lance teased.   
  
"Allura is the same," Lotor pointed out with a frown, "And she's dating a twenty-five year old and a twenty-three year old."   
  
Lance waved a dismissive hand at him. "Yeah, but she's cute and likes sparkly things, and you talk all formal and smirk all the time."   
  
Lotor snorted. "I do not."   
  
"Do too."   
  
"Do not!"   
  
"Do too!"   
  
"Lance, would you stop dragging my boy, uh, partner into your Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny bit?" Hunk asked, rolling his eyes.   
  
"Hey, it got him to loosen up and stop being all stiff and formal," Lance pointed out.   
  
Lotor just huffed. "I would appreciate being left out of your silly games."   
  
"Nah, we're practically in-laws at this point, so you're stuck with me and my games." Lance turned to grin at him.   
  
Hunk shook his head. "Okay, are we done here?"   
  
"Wait, Shiro hasn't gone," Allura pointed out helpfully.   
  
Shiro swallowed when everyone turned to him.  _ Fuck. _ _   
_


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woot. look at us, halfway through the final installment! please R&R and have a good day, my readers <3

"We're all here for you, Shiro," Matt encouraged.

Shiro couldn't speak. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth and his throat didn't want to open up and function for him. Not to mention all the mess of emotions that swirled in his head, but he tried to remain as composed as possible on the outside.

Shaking his head, he replied, "There's not that much to talk about." Yes, he absolutely was trying to get out this.   
  
Keith's eyes narrowed and he sat up, out of Lance's embrace, to stare intensely at Shiro. "Shiro. Come on. Hunk thought he didn't have anything to say, and it turns out he had a whole lot to say," he said, "Everyone else has done it, and it's not fair for you to sit out of this, especially as the head of Voltron. Your team is here to support you too; not just you supporting us. Not to mention this is jeopardizing an alliance with the Greefarrans. And I know you're better than this, Shiro, so act like it."   
  
_ Goddamnit. _ Keith knew how to hit every button that Shiro had.  _ Son of a bitch _ .    
  
He swallowed heavily again, staring into those purple eyes full of the damn tough love look that Shiro had pulled often enough on Keith.  _ Mother. Fucker. _ __   
  
"Okay," he sighed deeply, staring at his hands. He focused on the Galran one, licking his lips a little as he  tried to figure out where to  _ start _ . Honestly? There was so much fucked up with him that he had no clue where the absolute quiznakking hell to begin.   
  
Allura reached over and squeezed his shoulder and he drew in a deep breath, taking strength from the support his girlfriend showed him. He looked up and caught sight of Matt's tender smile. Yeah.... Matt would would probably understand more than anyone. Never enough, but more than the rest, since he'd been captured by the Galran Empire with Shiro.   
  
"I don't remember much of the year I was gone," he finally started, tearing his eyes from Matt to stare at his hand again. "I still don't. But I can feel all the effects, see it all over my body. I don't know how I lost my arm. How I got the scar across my face. Or damn near any of the scars all over my body. I'm  _ covered _ in them. I have no idea how I learned how to fight, to become the Champion everyone says I am. I can remember random bits and pieces... Killing aliens just to try and stay alive another day, being fed the literal grossest food I have  _ ever _ eaten, tracking the movements of sentries to escape, trying to find Matt. Keeping Matt safe."   
  
At this, he looked up to Matt again. "Sorry for hurting you, by the way," he said with a sheepish smile.   
  
Matt rolled his eyes. "Dude, you saved my ass, don't worry about it," he said, "I'll punch your arm later if it'll make you happy."   
  
Shiro snorted, shaking his head. "Anyway... It's just...  scary, missing a whole fucking year," he murmured.   
  
It took everything Pidge had not to scream about Shiro's hypocrisy with swearing just then.   
  
"I know I got hurt a lot. I am almost a hundred percent certain I have PTSD.... I have flashbacks, and it fucking  _ sucks _ ," he said, covering his face with his flesh hand to hide the tears forming in his eyes. "I was on Earth for all of seven hours before I was shot into space again. I was almost immediately told I had to be the leader of a mythical robot named Voltron made of giant mechanical lions and save the  _ universe _ ?"   
  
He sighed deeply. "I wanted to fight against the Galra, but I didn't expect to spearhead the revolution. To have to shove everything of  __ me  aside to... to... Fight again. And again, and again, and again. I'm so sick of fighting..." He shuddered with the force of holding up against the deep well of hurt inside, not wanting to let it spill over. This was hard enough without crying masking his words.

Allura slipped her arms around him, pressing her face into his neck in an attempt to comfort him. Shiro leaned back into her, swallowing again. Matt rose from his position with Pidge and plopped on Shiro's other side, splaying into his lap to gaze up at Shiro's face - well, hand, since it was covering his face.   
  
"Hey. It's okay, Kashi," Matt said gently, smiling once Shiro removed his hand to stare at Matt, "Believe me, we're all sick of it. But it's a war, right? We're doing pretty damn well. We have a shitton of allies now. If you need a break, longer than just a beach day, I'm sure the Blades and the rest of the Coalition could hold the forts for a movement."   
  
Shiro smiled, just a little, and bent to kiss Matt softly. "That would be pretty nice," he murmured, sighing. "I just don't know..."   
  
Allura had to let him go so he could kiss Matt without her accidentally elbowing her other boyfriend in the face. She rubbed his back lightly.    
  
"We'll figure it out later," she promised.   
  
Shiro smiled back at her before shifting his gaze to stare out the window at the space going by. "Anyway... You guys are my team. And you all make me so happy. But I don't want to see any of you die," he whispered brokenly, "So I've been pushing myself like crazy to be the best leader I could be. I don't want to lose any of you. And then there was that weird mind fight with Zarkon. That's a whole can of worms on its own.   
  
"But... I was so lucky to win that one. I think Black was just... attached to him as her first Paladin, despite his abusive ass act. I was almost dead when I finally told him that nobody commands the Black Lion, and she... realized she deserved better. She thought  _ I _ was better, which is ironic as all hell since I'm way more... messed up. But she came in and saved me.   
  
"After that, fighting and fighting... Worrying about Keith's Blade Trials. Worrying about this, worrying about that. And then I got lost again. Black ejected me into that..." He paused to shudder, quelling the nausea that rose in his stomach every time he remembered the inbetween place, with the weird creatures that lurked with hungry eyes. He  _ really _ did not need to throw up, thanks body.   
  
Keith shuddered as he thought about it too, though he'd been in there far less long than Shiro had.    
  
"The inbetween realities place. I don't... That place was sickening, and I was in a weird coma almost the entire time," he whispered, "The creatures... I could tell they wanted to eat me, but it was almost like... they couldn't? I don't even know how I survived. It was too surreal."   
  
Keith nodded, shivering again. Lance tugged him back against his chest, forcing him to relax a little.    
  
"And then... Learning that I had an evil twin worthy of a Spanish soap opera running around, doing things in my place was definitely a slap in the face," he said with a tiny chuckle at Lance's offended look.   
  
"Excuse me, Spanish soap operas are fantastic," Lance protested, pouting, "They're  _ so _ much more dramatic than the regular ones."   
  
Shiro chuckled more. "That's exactly why I pointed those out specifically," he said, "Um... But since then, everything's been... better. Everyone seems... happier. I'm happier. I have Allura and Matt, now."   
  
Matt beamed up at him and Shiro just had to lean down and kiss him again, turning to kiss Allura's bright smile too.   
  
"I'm glad we have you, too," she whispered.    
  
He smiled back. "Yeah. But... hearing all the shit that Kuron tried to do?  _ Wanted _ to do to hurt you? It makes me so sick... I'm just glad that it all worked out. That  _ we _ still worked out. Because you guys... I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Keeping faking your way through shit like you've been doing without telling us," Matt said dryly, making Shiro laugh.   
  
"Okay, okay, I get the message, more open honesty," he promised.   
  
"I'll hold you to it," Allura said sharply, "It's irresponsible to let yourself be so burdened when we are supposed to share everything, and then your team is supposed to be here to support you. You can't take and take and take without giving. That applies to love, gifts, and burdens. The more you tell, the less it is."   
  
Shiro took a shuddering breath, finally letting his tears come. "You're right," he whispered, staring at her with a tired smile, "I'm so sorry, guys." He turned to the rest of the room, noting their shocked faces at his tears with a sad amusement. He'd seen everyone in this room cry at least once (except Lotor, but he suspected that it would happen one day). It was unfair to everyone for him to try and function like a robot.   
  
Especially considering one had actually taken his place, so. You know. Being more human was probably a smart idea.   
  
"Just try not to keep everything bottled up, Shiro. You tell me that all the time," Keith pointed out with a soft smile, "You've got a bunch of people to support you."   
  
"Yeah," Hunk interjected, nodding furiously, "We're all here for each other, Shiro. There's nothing to worry about, you know?"   
  
"Exactly," Lance put in, a bright smile on his face, "If we're all in this together, we're all in this together, and we all need to share."   
  
Pidge nodded, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Yeah. We can handle it, Shiro. We're all going through the same shit."   
  
Shiro opened his mouth and Pidge interrupted him again. "But if you scold me about my language again I'm kicking your hypocritical ass."   
  
Shiro's mouth clamped shut and she grinned in triumph.   
  
Lotor watched with mild amusement. If he were to be honest... He could use a therapy session like this, but this was for Team Voltron. There were enough emotions without adding his into the volatile mix. He could probably just talk to Hunk and Shiro separately later or something.   
  
Coran had been silent through it all, taking it all in and wishing could join in as well. He'd been shouldering a lot himself, but... This was for the Team. Not him.   
  
Allura and Matt felt no such need like Coran and Lotor, as they already shared everything with each other and Shiro, and occasionally the others of the team.   
  
"Well, that was pretty successful," Coran said cheerily, clapping his hands together, "I think tomorrow we can go back down to Greefar and show them the new and improved Team Voltron."

Lance groaned. "Do we  _ have _ to?" he asked in a whine, "I don't want to see that stupid Jöter's face again."   
  
Shiro's lips twitched in amusement, but he only shook his head. "Yes, Lance, we have to," he replied, "The whole reason for our... group therapy was them in the first place."   
  
Lance groaned again, burying his face in Keith's hair. "Stupid jerky birdman."   
  
Keith snorted. "Yeah, well. They were right about us needing to do this. I feel...  _ way _ better than I have in weeks," he admitted softly, "Maybe longer."   
  
Lance nuzzled him. "Yeah, me too. Damn you and your logic," he said without any heat, chuckling softly.   
  
"Okay, lovebirds," Pidge interrupted, rolling her eyes, "I think we all need some dinner after that. Huuuuunk?"   
  
Hunk sighed. "Why can't there be any space Pizza Huts to deliver us some pizza?" he complained, even as he stood to go make dinner, "Seriously lame."   
  
Lotor stood with him. "I'll help," he said quietly, making Hunk beam, "You can tell me all about this 'Pizza Hut' while we cook."   
  
Once the other two had left the couch, Lance laid back and pulled Keith atop him, hugging him close.    
  
"I'm really glad I have you," he murmured into Keith's blushing ear, carding his fingers through Keith's hair.   
  
"Yeah. I'm glad I have you, too," Keith whispered. He startled a little when Chulatt skittered over him to settle between the two Paladins.   
  
Lance suppressed a snicker and kissed the top of Keith's head, content to relax until Hunk called them for dinner.


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look at this, guys!! over halfway uploaded!! are you excited to see the ending of this fic? I sure am excited to get it to you! We have TWO WEEKS before this fic is fully published! I'm dying scoob, I hope you guys enjoy! Please R&R <3

Seeing Jöter again went remarkably well. It was the final day of celebrations on Greefar, and the relaxed atmosphere helped quell the rest of Lance's pissiness towards Jöter.   
  
It probably helped that they were an empathetic species and everything, projecting their joy all over the place as they danced in the streets, unburdened by the Paladins' problems now that they had been resolved.   
  
Finally coming up to Jöter as they danced with their tribe, Lance couldn't help but smile as Chulatt showed him the pure joy on Jöter's face. Okay, that looked nice. So happy and carefree.   
  
Jöter finally caught sight of them and grinned widely. "Welcome back, Paladins! I see you have resolved your issues," they said pleasantly, bowing in respect.   
  
Shiro returned the bow a bit stiffly. "Yes. It was needed. However, we don't appreciate that you forced it on us like that," he said lighty.   
  
Jöter shook their head. "You cannot honestly tell me that without hard, extenuating circumstances, that you all would have spoken up eventually."   
  
Shiro's silence was apparently all the answer Jöter needed, as they threw their head back and laughed.    
  
"You are a better team for it," they said warmly, "I am sorry that it felt like an attack and that it was uncomfortable, but you also cannot honestly say that it wasn't good for you. And now I can, in good conscience, trust the fate of my people to you, Paladins of Voltron. Entirely."   
  
"There's another team that we work with in Coalition you'll need to trust," Lance said firmly. "The Blades of Marmora. They're Galran rebels."   
  
Surprise flashed across Jöter's face but they nodded thoughtfully. "I sense you trust them deeply. Whomever you trust, we shall as well."

Shiro smiled. "Thank you," he said, dipping his head slightly in respect.   
  
Jöter nodded, also dipping their head. "Let us know whenever there is anything we can do for you. But for now, please, join us on this last day of festivities," they said, gesturing to the people dancing around them.   
  
Lance automatically turned to Keith, grinning widely. Music with a slow, methodical beat slowly rose in pitch now that Lance paid attention to it and he offered his hand to his boyfriend.   
  
"Well? Like they said, let's dance," he said.   
  
Keith glanced around uncertainly, but he smiled back, a tiny smile, and took Lance's hand. "Okay."   
  
Chulatt gave a happy squeak from Lance's shoulder and he laughed as he pulled Keith into the crowd, limbs flailing wildly in some attempt at dance. Keith laughed at him, but followed along, knowing they looked like idiots and not caring.   
  
Hunk dragged Pidge into a goofy dance of their own, both of them just feeling free and letting go.   
  
Shiro surprised  _ everyone _ a few minutes later when a crowd gathered around him as he busted out his breakdancing moves. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge watched with open mouths as Shiro spun on the grass. Keith crossed his arms and smirked.   
  
"I taught him how to do that," he bragged.   
  
"What! You can breakdance too?" Lance asked, turning his gaping mouth expression to Keith.   
  
"Yup."   
  
"Keith. Holy. Shit. You gotta show me later."   
  
"Maybe."   
  
" _ Maybe? _ Keith, honey, sweetheart, light of my life, bae,  _ please _ , I beg you, show me."   
  
Keith snickered, sliding in close to Lance and kissing him softly. Chulatt stopped projecting to give Lance a sense of privacy.    
  
"Okay, Lance, I will, if you never ever call me 'bae' again," Keith warned.   
  
"Never again," Lance promised sagely.

\---

It happened when they got back to their lions after spending a few vargas with the Greefarrans.   
  
All of them rumbled and purred at their Paladins, deeper than they'd ever heard before as they flew free of the planet's gravitational pull.   
  
"What's going on?" Hunk asked nervously. He gasped a moment later as Yellow spoke to him.   
  
One by one, the Paladins all got the same message from their lions.   
  
_ {You have bonded well. It is time.} _ _  
_ _  
_ Lance quivered with the weight of the words. They sounded more ethereal than he'd  _ ever _ heard. It was time for  _ what _ , exactly? What was going to happen?   
  
Were... were the lions going to  _ eat _ them?!   
  
Blue laughed outright at him.  _ {No, silly cub,} _ she said fondly,  _ {Once we're safe in the Castleship, all of you will be shown.} _ _  
_ _  
_ Lance  _ hated _ surprises. Especially more since he'd been blinded as they came more frequently from simply not being able to see 100% of the time.  _ But fine, Blue, okay, I'll trust you. _ _  
_ _  
_ _ {Good.} _ _  
_ _  
_ Praying it wasn't as ominous as that sounded, Lance docked, listening to everyone murmur about what could be happening as they landed as well.   
  
Then, it  _ really _ happened.   
  
Lance choked off a gasp as he felt what he could only describe as  _ power _ welling up inside him. His eyes rolled back into his head slightly as it filled him up and spilled out  _ of his hands, what the fuck _ \- He felt ice coating the controls where his hands gripped them.    
  
He heard Keith's yell and his eyes popped open (when had they closed?) but it wasn't like he could see Blue's screens for the vid call.   
  
"Keith?!" he called out in a strangled voice, the power settling into an oddly comforting weight in his chest as it finished changing him, his body. The ice on the controls quickly melted.   
  
"I'm fine," Keith said tightly, and then Pidge's shriek.   
  
"I can't see my hands! Or my arms! Or my anything!"   
  
"What's happening? Guys, why don't we all get out of the lions and go talk to Allura and Coran?" Shiro asked, but then he yelped and abruptly went silent.   
  
"Did Shiro fucking  _ disappear _ again?" Keith yelled.   
  
God, everything was so chaotic.   
  
Hunk had no idea what was going on, but everyone's reactions were scaring the shit out of him. He'd felt his own power start to well up, but it settled quickly and he felt more... grounded, somehow? More solid? He couldn't describe it, exactly. It didn't...  _ release _ in the way everyone else's seemed to be.   
  
"Guys? What... are you all feeling something?" he asked, knowing that for sure Keith and Pidge had something going on, but he needed to know that Lance and Shiro felt it too.   
  
"Uh, I'm back," Shiro said dizzily over the lions' comms.   
  
"Thank God," Keith breathed.   
  
"What. Is. Happening?" Lance spat through gritted teeth.   
  
The lions rumbled and responded as one.  _ {Your bonds have strengthened. You are stronger. Better. You can do  _ **_more_ ** _.} _ _  
_ _  
_ "More, okay, more. What's  _ more? _ " Keith asked, "Nearly burning myself to death?"   
  
"Whoa, what? Keith, are you okay?" Lance cried out, worried.   
  
"Everyone," Shiro cut in, "Take a deep breath. Or two or three. Let's all meet in Black's hangar. Please." he barely got the word out before he vanished again, standing outside his lion.   
  
_ What the everliving  _ **_fuck._ ** **_  
_ **   
After a few minutes, everyone gathered in Black's hangar, shifting nervously.   
  
"Where's Pidge?" Shiro asked as he scanned their faces.   
  
"Right here," she said crossly, "I'm just  _ invisible _ for some godforsaken reason."   
  
"Uh... well. I guess that's that then..." Shiro cleared his throat. "It seems to me we all acquired some kind of power related to our lions."   
  
"Okay, but Green didn't have invisibility and cloaking until I, you know, modified her to be that way, so why would I get that? I mean it's definitely cool, but..." Pidge trailed off. "I dunno."   
  
"Well, you're  _ all _ invisible to me, so it's nothing new to me, Pidge," Lance teased.   
  
"Shut up," she said, rolling her eyes, not that it had any affect on  _ anyone _ . She was used to Lance not knowing (or somehow knowing anyway because they all knew each other so well now), but to have none of them able to see her freaked her out.   
  
"So what's been happening to everyone?" Shiro asked, exasperated.   
  
"Well, in addition to the invisible thing, I'm pretty sure I covered the inside of Green with vines," Pidge said dryly, "but they disappeared as fast as they appeared."   
  
"I started freezing Blue over," Lance added.   
  
"I almost burned Red down," Keith mumbled, not really wanting to hear everyone freak out about the whole "fire" thing and keeping his eyes on the ground.   
  
"Whoa, what? You can control  _ fire?" _ Lance asked excitedly, bouncing on his heels.   
  
Keith shrugged. "Apparently."   
  
"Duuuuude. Nice."   
  
Shiro rubbed his face. "Well... I can teleport," he said, "So there's that. I need to learn to get better control over it. All I have to do is even  _ think _ about the kitchen and - " And poof, there he went.   
  
Lance snickered.   
  
Shiro popped back and groaned. "Yeah, see? I'm pretty sure all of us need practice with what we can do."   
  
"I don't even  _ know _ what I can do," Hunk added anxiously, "At least, not yet."   
  
"Then let's all get to the training deck to - " Aaaaand he was gone again. Shiro just sighed and sat down on the floor of the training room to wait for everyone else.   
  
Quickly, the rest of the Paladins gathered in the training room (Pidge figured out how to be visible again), with the other four residents of the castle close behind.   
  
Shiro stood and gave them a smile, hugging Allura and Matt when they came over to him.   
  
"What's going on, Shiro?" Allura asked, eyes alight with curiosity.   
  
"Uhh, we just got freaking awesome superpowers!" Lance butted in, too jazzed about it to stay calm.   
  
Matt gasped, swinging his gaze to Lance. "Superpowers?  _ What _ ? Like super strength and you can fly or have acid spit or - "   
  
"Nothing like that," Shiro said with a small laugh, placing a hand on Matt's shoulder. "I can, uh, teleport. It's uncontrolled right now, though, so that's why we're all here. We need to figure out what to do to control all of our powers."   
  
"Superpowers?" Coran finally repeated, furrowing his brow. "Whatever do you mean by that?"   
  
"It means we can do things normal humans can't," Keith answered as he lit his hand on fire nonchalantly, "Like this."   
  
Everyone but Lance took a step back.   
  
"Dude, put your hand out, you're freaking everyone out," he scolded, asking Chulatt to borrow his eyes for a moment. He coated his hand in ice and grabbed Keith's with it, sizzling the fire out.   
  
Keith muttered a a soft "thank you" and decided not to tell them that he couldn't figure out how to put it out and that Lance's intervention was actually necessary.   
  
Coran's eyes lit up. "Oh! That's wonderful! But how did you obtain these superpowers if humans normally don't have them?"   
  
"The Lions," Shiro replied, "They said something our bond being stronger so they made  _ us _ stronger."   
  
"What can everyone do?" Allura asked, looking at their faces.   
  
"I got ice powers, Keith got fire, as we demonstrated so awesomely, Pidge can be invisible and apparently control vines, and Hunk... Says he doesn't know yet," Lance answered. "Shiro already said what he can do."   
  
"Yes, but like I said, none of us really have any control," Shiro elaborated, "So we came here to try and get a grip on it all."   
  
Lotor frowned and grabbed Hunk, pulling him into a corner of the room to talk to him and work out what he could do while everyone else began practicing with what they already knew what could do.   
  
Hunk chewed on his lip and shifted his weight from foot to foot nervously. "What if I didn't get anything?" he asked anxiously.   
  
Lotor shook his head, placing his hands on Hunk's shoulders. "Hunk. You would not likely be the only one without any powers," he said seriously, "The Lions have an odd way of doing things, but they would not leave anyone left out. So what did you feel when they started changing everyone?"   
  
"I felt... powerful," Hunk began, "I felt more solid. Strong. Like I could plant my feet and not move even if Zarkon tried to run me over in his central command ship."   
  
Lotor smirked. "Well, that'd be quite a feat."   
  
Hunk chuckled a little. "Yeah. I don't think that'll be happening, but..." He lifted a shoulder in a half shrug.   
  
Lotor looked him over with a critical eye. "You said strong and solid, yes? Then perhaps... Do you trust me?"   
  
Hunk looked up in shock. "Of course!"   
  
Nodding briefly, Lotor took a step back and swung his fist towards Hunk's stomach. True to his word of trust, Hunk didn't move - at least, until Lotor gave a cry of pain as his fist slammed into Hunk's gut (but he didn't feel anything, holy  _ shit  _ -) and cradled his hand close to his chest.   
  
"My gods," he hissed, shaking his hand out, "That felt like I was trying to punch a brick wall!"   
  
Hunk took Lotor's hand, looking it over. "It looks okay. I don't know if you broke any bones a little bit though," he admitted.   
  
Lotor shook his head. "No, I would know. That was simply... painful." He shuddered. "It seems like you are like your Lion in that you have much tougher skin - like armor. I'd be willing to place a bet that you also are much stronger."   
  
Hunk chewed his lip and looked over thoughtfully. "Do  _ you _ trust  _ me _ ?" he asked.   
  
Lotor blinked. "Of course I do," he answered.   
  
Hunk grinned and grabbed Lotor around the waist, lifting him up in that  _ Dirty Dancing _ move.   
  
Lotor squawked but held himself still even as his heart hammered in his chest. He didn't think Hunk would drop him, but being held up like this wasn't exactly  _ fun _ .    
  
Hunk laughed and put him down gently. "I'm  _ strong _ . I mean, I was strong before? But I don’t think I could have lifted you up like that before, so…  _ effortlessly _ . Holy shit," he said a bit giddily, "I can't believe I just did that! I could totally punch Zarkon in the face and break his nose!"   
  
"You could probably just punch his head clean off his shoulders," Lotor said dryly, shivering at the image.    
  
Hunk himself looked faintly sick at the notion. "I'll stick to broken nose, thanks Lotor."   
  
Lotor shook his head and leaned down to press his lips to Hunk's in a brief kiss. "Do not worry. If anyone is going to kill that monster, it will be me."   
  
Hunk blinked in shock. "But.. he's your dad. You'd..."    
  
Lotor sighed, looking down. "He hasn't been my dad for ten thousand years, Hunk. He's barely been my father. Yes, I'd kill him."   
  
Hunk hugged him. "I'm sorry."   
  
"Don't be," Lotor sighed, hugging him back, "It's just... a fact of my life. But I will be fine. I have you now."   
  
"Okay, that was really sweet, and you're gonna make me cry," Hunk whimpered.   
  
Lotor laughed lightly. "Please don't. I do not have any tissue on me."   
  
Hunk snorted, wiping at his eyes. "Okay, okay. Thank you."   
  
"I am just doing my job as your mate," Lotor replied, a soft, adoring smile on his face.   
  
Hunk blushed slightly and smiled back. "Yeah, okay."   
  
He glanced around the room at the others, who seemed to be getting a hold of their powers. Hunk realized he'd have to learn how to deal with his newfound strength, but it couldn't be too hard to adjust how tightly he hugged. Everyone else had powers that were... far more dangerous.    
  
Lance could potentially freeze himself to death, Keith could  _ burn _ himself to death, Shiro could somehow accidentally teleport into space, and Pidge could choke herself on the vines she made if she wasn't careful in how she directed them.   
  
It was when Shiro started floating to the ceiling that things got  _ really _ crazy.    
  
"So wait, if  _ everyone  _ gets  _ two _ powers, what else can I do?" Lance demanded as soon as someone told him what was happening to Shiro (he'd been giving Chulatt another break).    
  
"I don't even know what  _ I _ can do," Keith groaned, "Let alone what yours might be."   
  
Lance pouted and crossed his arms. Keith rolled his eyes, but he leaned forward and kiss the pout off Lance's lips.   
  
"We're here to figure it out together, aren't we?" he asked in a murmur.   
  
Lance blushed a little. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. So..." He hummed in thought. "I don't know what to  _ try _ to see what I can do, though..."   
  
Keith grabbed his shoulder in a now long-familiar gesture between the two of them. "You'll figure it out. I know you can," he said warmly.   
  
"Sap." But he smiled. "Okay, so, I bet your thing is totally speed. Since Red's the fastest lion. You should, like, try running around or something."   
  
"Yeah, okay," Keith agreed, letting go. He started to jog to warm up a little and then broke into a sprint, pushing himself to go faster, faster,  _ fasterfaster _ **_faster_ ** \- and suddenly he had ran around the room in a half second flat, and then twice, and three times, but his eyes were keeping up with every movement and he could adjust his course so he didn't run anyone over. Holy shit.   
  
He skidded to a stop in front of Lance, panting. "Oh my God, I can run  _ fast _ ."   
  
"Ooh, so you're The Flash now?" Lance asked, popping up to the balls of his feet excitedly as he started to sing, " _ Running around at the speed of sound- _ "   
  
"Stop," Keith said, laughing anyway, "You're a terrible singer."   
  
"Wow, okay,  _ rude _ ," Lance gasped, clutching his chest, "I came out here to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now - "   
  
Keith laughed harder, poking Lance's chest. "Stop, we're supposed to be serious right now," he tried to say between laughs.   
  
"Well, you're not doing a very good job either," Lance retorted, laughing as well. God, he loved hearing Keith's laugh.    
  
"Yeah, that's your fault," Keith shot back, managing to stifle the rest of his giggles.   
  
"Psh." Lance waved a hand dismissively, ready to say something else, but he felt a sneeze coming on and buried his face in the crook of his elbow.   
  
The sneeze literally blew him away with a sonic boom and he flew across the training deck, thankfully right into Hunk, who caught him without even a grunt.   
  
"Uh..."   
  
Keith darted over and checked Lance for injuries. His ears had definitely popped, being so close to Lance's explosion, but they hadn't been hurt, so.   
  
"I guess we know what your second power is," he said once he was sure Lance was okay.   
  
Lance laughed. "Yeah, no kidding. My poor nose hurts though!"    
  
"Yeah, I bet," Pidge chirped, trotting over, "You practically flew!"   
  
"I know what flying is, and that wasn't flying," Shiro called from his place on the ceiling, gently floating down to his potentially injured teammate, "You sure you're okay, Lance?"   
  
"Fine, I'm fine, I swear - where's Chulatt?!" he suddenly gasped, head whipping around as he listened closely for his little mouse buddy.   
  
_ :Safe,: _ the mouse assured him, and Lance relaxed, letting Hunk stand him up properly.   
  
"Well,  _ where _ are you?"   
  
He heard soft squeaking in his ear and he sighed in relief, wondering where the hell the mouse had come from but deciding not to question it. He reached up to pet Chulatt gently.   
  
_ :See, I told you I was fine!: _ _  
_ _  
_ _ But I don't  _ see _ , Chu, remember? _ Lance snickered, laughing more outright as the mouse nipped his ear affectionately and scoldingly at the same time.   
  
"Okay, so I gotta figure out how not to freeze anything or blow it up with sneezing," Lance said aloud, borrowing Chulatt's eyes to look over his teammates. They seemed relieved he wasn't hurt, anyway.   
  
"How do you stop yourself from doing that while you sneeze? Sneezes are kinda... involuntary," Hunk said, rubbing his chin in thought.   
  
"By learning how  _ to  _ do it so I stop doing it involuntarily of course," Lance scoffed, as if it were the easiest thing in the world.   
  
Keith rolled his eyes, but leaned in and kissed Lance softly. "I'm glad you're okay. Now come on. We gotta practice some more," he said quietly, smiling.   
  
Lance smiled back and the team continued practicing with their powers, learning how to control them until they dripped with sweat and exhaustion. After hitting the showers, they fell into bed for a much-needed sleep cycle.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay. It's not even Tuesday on my side of the world anymore, but it's only _barely_ Wednesday, so? heh.... I had a bad day at work today but I'm still very sorry I missed updating  <\3 I hope you guys enjoy what's in store this chapter! Lotor and Coran have a good talk :) Please R&R and remember that I love each and every one of my dear readers

As the Paladins trained and worked on their powers, Allura and Matt worked together with rebels and spent time alone together, then with Shiro (after he’d showered from training, of course).   
  
Lotor and Coran were left quite without much to do, so Coran started teaching Lotor about the castleship - showing him how to fix certain parts, secret areas, the works.   
  
“This castle is  _ fascinating _ ,” Lotor remarked as he peered over Coran’s shoulder into the panel the other man was fixing. “There is so much ancient Altean tech locked away in it, and much of it still advanced even for  _ now _ , ten thousand years later.”

“Ten thousand and six hundred years, my good man,” Coran responded boisterously, crawling out from the panel. He began to rapidly explain what he’d been doing and Lotor nodded along, grateful for his photographic memory.

Everything Altean, Lotor  _ loved _ . It reminded him of who his mother was before she spiraled, of his other side. A side that was better, happier than the Galran side. Yet… he didn’t have the marks. God, how he wished he had Altean marks.

Coran was a wealth of old knowledge, knowledge that had been burned and erased from most of history. From culture to flora and fauna to government. Lotor was interested in it all and wished that he could remember anything of old Altea from his brief time there as a child. But he’d been raised for a while before he’d been frozen for a few centuries, and taken out when things were supposedly more stable to raise a child. He’d grown up haphazardly, in war, and abused and neglected. Frozen again when he’d attempted to betray his father and sent in exile, only to wake up a few decades later at Voltron’s return, forced to do Zarkon’s bidding and still trying to do his own thing. So much had happened...

Coran, for Lotor, felt more like a father than Lotor’s own father had been, willing to teach him how everything worked and show him his Altean side. 

A side he didn’t have to detest.

Lotor could honestly never get tired of hearing Coran talk about it all.

Somehow they had moved on from the mechanics of the ship to the biology of Alteans as they wandered around the castleship and popped into a lounge area.

“So the scales are one of the most important parts of an Altean’s social connections with others,” Coran explained, tapping the marks just under his eyes, “Through them, we can tap into each other’s minds and memories - only the ones that we want seen, of course. It helps connect us on a deeper level and allow us to experience things exactly as the other person did so we can understand them better.”

Lotor nodded, fascinated. “That is a wonderful evolutionary quirk,” he commented, rubbing the spots beneath his own eyes. He didn’t feel anything, as always, and yet… He still couldn’t stop himself from hoping.

Coran noticed the movement and sighed, shifting closer to Lotor and wrapping an arm around Lotor’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry, my boy,” he said softly, “It must be hard. Feeling like… you’re too Altean to be Galra, but too Galra to be Altean.”

Lotor gave him a surprised look. “Why… Yes, that’s exactly how I feel,” he admitted, sighing, “I don’t have enough of either traits to make me feel like I belong anywhere.”

Coran nodded understandingly. “I see. I…” He hesitated. “I myself sometimes feel as if I don’t even belong here with my team, the people I should feel comfortable amongst. It feels as - my efforts are hardly noticed, or I’m only good for a quick laugh. You’re the only one who actually listens to my rambles, besides Lance or Allura, you know. Or at least, listens attentively. You’re actually interested in it all and perhaps that’s where we both belong. Right with each other, the last true Alteans. And of course you’re counted as a true Altean - only one could actually put up with me!”

Lotor gave a soft chuckle at the end of Coran’s little speech, half-hugging his pseudo-father. “Thank you for that, Coran. And of course I listen to you. You have a lot of interesting things to say. You teach me all about the other half of  _ myself _ . A half I never got to experience. And I appreciate it endlessly, Coran.”

Coran blinked, tears springing up. “Oh, Lotor… I appreciate your appreciation,” he murmured as he pulled Lotor into a full hug. Lotor stiffened at first, but relaxed into it.

“You’re more like a true father to me than Zarkon ever was,” he whispered.

“...Thank you.”

“What were they like, before? Before the rift and quintessence? I only remember a little, from when I was very young… And none of it good anyway.”

“Heh.” Coran’s mustache twitched and his hands automatically shifted to grasp Lotor’s face where scales would be, intent on sharing the memories that way, but wait, Lotor didn’t - 

Then Lotor gasped and Coran realized it was working. Quiznak, Coran hadn’t expected that at all. Did Lotor have hidden marks? He shoved the swirling thoughts to the side, intent on showing Lotor who his parents were before.   
  
_ Flashes of memory. Zarkon’s dorky, stunned face when he first saw the beautiful Honerva. Honerva’s blushing cheeks when Alfor teased her about Zarkon asking after her. Coran teaching Honerva about some Galran culture, specifically the courting rituals so she could do the right things. Honerva declaring her intent in a crowded room (some kind of diplomatic meeting) and Zarkon’s starry-eyed look as she did so. He returned the favor almost immediately and soon they were giggling (!) and holding hands at every opportunity, sneaking away at times to steal kisses in dark corridors like a couple of teenagers. Coran watching them work together. Zarkon giving Honerva a desperate kiss right before he charged off to battle with Voltron. Every time Zarkon came back alive, Honerva hugging him, scolding him for worrying her, and Zarkon’s sheepish laugh.  _

_ Zarkon getting hurt, and Coran checking on his pod at ungodly hours in the morning to see Honerva sitting in front of his pod, surrounded by blankets and staring at Zarkon’s sleeping face. The pod opening and Honerva catching him, holding him, crying. _

_ “I thought you were going to die,” she whispers. _

_ “There’s not a thing in the universe that could kill me besides you, darling,” Zarkon whispers back, kissing her, tears falling from his face as well. He knew it was but a lie. He’d come very close to dying this time. _

_ Then later, Zarkon’s proposal - this by Altean standards, since Honerva had started it by Galra tradition. Their marriage, by Altean standards, since it was the one that could be public. The Galran one was intensely private, and the bondmarks on their necks after they came back from their brief honeymoon (brief because Voltron needed their Black Paladin) were all the indication their friends needed. _

_ Relaxing after a battle, Zarkon and Honerva cuddling on the couch, Honerva’s abdomen round with pregnancy, and a toddler Allura bouncing on Sethstrisa’s knee while Alfor cooed at her. _

_ Coran babysitting Lotor and Allura while their parents went to yet another fight, watching them play with a smile on his face as they tumbled around and pretended to be their parents, fighting evil. Their parents coming to get them and laughing at their reenactments, Zarkon scooping up Lotor and Honvera kissing Lotor’s head as their son squealed and laughed.  _

Coran removed his hands and Lotor’s eyes opened, tears streaming down his face.

“They were good people once,” Coran said softly, “They loved you and each other.”

Lotor sniffed slightly, rubbing at his eyes to chase the tears away. “I wish they could have stayed that way,” he whispered longingly.

“Me too, my boy. Me too.” Coran pulled Lotor into a hug.

Lotor stiffened at first, but relaxed. “Thank you for showing me that, Coran. I… I cannot even begin to express to you how grateful I am to know that they were good once.”

Coran rubbed Lotor’s back. “I understand, Lotor. I am glad I could show you. Though I am curious, because you don’t appear to have Altean scales for it to happen. I’d like to do a scan, if that’s alright with you, lad.”

Lotor cleared his throat and pulled back, shuffling his emotions away for the moment. He’d talk to Hunk about it later, probably. “That is fine. I would like to know how that worked myself.”

They walked together to the med bay in companionable silence, each pondering the implications of Lotor having more Altean traits than previously thought. For instance, could he share memories back to Coran and Allura? Not that Lotor thought he had many good memories to share…

The scan took well over half a varga, during which Hunk came to check on his boyfriend - suitor, right, Hunk still needed to get used to thinking that. It was a cute little quirk how Lotor got so…  _ salty _ , for lack of a better term, about the so-called “juvenile” term.

“Hey guys, what’s up? Nothing bad, I hope?” he asked as he came to stand behind Coran, watching the screen in fascination.

“Not at all, number two! We’re just doing a scan to see how many Altean traits Lotor can actually perform. We discovered he could do one quite by accident, but we’re going to see if he could do more. We already know he can shapeshift, but know we now he has hidden Altean scales. The marks on our cheeks. There are things we can do with them involving emotions and memory.”

Hunk hummed in thought, rubbing his chin. “Is there anything else? And what does that all involve?”

“Nothing I can think of off the top of my head, but it involves touching each other’s scales and simply willing the emotion or memory to be shared.”

"Oh, that sounds cool! How does that even work?" Hunk asked excitedly, grinning at the thought of figuring out more about Alteans.   
  
"It all has to do with our personal quintessence," Coran began, "You simply share it with the other person. The scales are the conduits and you infuse the emotion or memory into the shared quintessence and  _ poof _ ! Now the other person knows what you wanted them to know."   
  
The scan beeped that it finished and Lotor stepped out of the pod, coming over to Coran and Hunk. He hugged Hunk from behind, resting his chin on Hunk's head with a smile.

"Hello, Hunk."   
  
Hunk chuckled slightly and leaned back into Lotor. "Hey Lotor. Coran told me a bit of what's going on. I wonder, would you be able to share memories with me even though I don't have scales?"   
  
"That is a good question," Lotor murmured, focused on reading the results of the scan for how much he  _ could _ do. His heart nearly stopped when he read that he could wield quintessence in the way Allura did.   
  
"I - Coran, does that mean I could pilot the Castleship in a jam?" he asked, eyes wide with the possibilities.   
  
"Why, I believe so, yes," Coran answered as he read the results quickly, "This  _ is  _ interesting. Hm. And to answer your question, Hunk, I think it's possible that could happen. Full-blooded Alteans could sometimes do it with other species depending on how strong their psychic powers were. For instance, we could probably do it with the Greefarrans. I'm not so sure about Humans, or how Lotor would do as a half-Altean, but there's no reason not to try!"   
  
"We'll try it when we have some time alone. Zarkon's attacks are growing in number," Lotor said, trying not to scowl.    
  
"Yeah. But I think.. Shiro's been saying lately that we have a really good grip on our powers now," Hunk mentioned, chewing his lip, "We're taking a break right now, and... We're thinking that maybe, it's time for the final attack? Once and for all?"   
  
The breath left Lotor in a rush. "You mean it? We could finally defeat him?"   
  
Hunk went to nod, but Lotor's chin on his head stopped him, so he answered verbally. "Yeah. Shiro thinks it's about time we put together a final plan. With our new powers involved and everything, this... this is gonna be good, I think. We have more assurance that we could actually pull this off, you know?"   
  
Coran smiled, twisting his mustache as he turned to face them. "Well, then I guess we better call for a Coalition meeting."


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !! oh my goodness!! 3 chapters to go fellas :O this chapter and the next two will focus on our lovely couples, giving them individual time and attention with each other to, well. Say goodbye. They could die the next day, for them, the final battle is tomorrow. This chapter is Klance's. Please R &R and have a good weekend <3

This was it. This was  _ really _ it.

Keith couldn’t believe that the next day was  _ it _ . They were going to launch a full scale attack on the very heart of the Galra Empire. They were going to kill Zarkon. The war would be far from over, according to Lotor, even after he would win the throne, but… At least the biggest obstacle would be hurdled. Things would settle more easily.  _ They could visit home in just a few short weeks.  _ Everything had been finalized, and now they had a day to just... Rest up in preparation.

Keith didn’t have any excitement over going home, not for himself. He’d meant it when he said it at the first Voltron Group Therapy Session. He didn’t have anyone or anything for him there. It was  _ Lance’s _ excitement that he was happy for. For Lance to see his family. He… was  _ worried _ , mostly, about meeting Lance’s family. He knew of course that they wouldn’t care that Lance was dating a guy - Lance had sung their praises over how progressive and accepting his family was. 

But still. Just because they accepted the  _ idea _ of Lance’s relationship didn’t mean they’d accept  _ Keith _ at all. Very few adults had ever liked Keith. Hell, very few people people in general had ever liked Keith. He was too awkward, coming off as aloof because he had a hard time actually connecting with people. Saying what he meant and getting his points across without fucking it all up was tough for him. Lance had it easy, there. He charmed his way through life and was impossible not to like, almost. Definitely almost, because plenty of people, including Keith, hadn’t liked Lance. But he grew on you. Like a benign tumor.

Yeah, that didn’t… No, that didn’t sound right. At all. God, he hated words. He was a man of  _ action _ , damnit. Groaning, he let his head fall back to lean against the wall behind him. Lance deserved someone special. He didn’t feel he was that someone, but Lance thought he was, so he tried his best to be that way for him. To be  _ better _ at words so Lance could hear the things he deserved to hear. Without accidentally him “okay cancer”, essentially. He wrinkled his nose at himself. Yeesh.

Maybe he should ask Shiro what kind of romantic thing he could do? Since they could die tomorrow. Keith wanted to give Lance a good memory, a great goodbye without it being a goodbye. Shiro surely had some ideas, what with dating two people at once. 

Decision made, he left his brooding spot and went off in search of Shiro. He found him in one of the lounge rooms, snuggling his partners on the couch and talking quietly with them.   
  
“Hey, Shiro, can I borrow you for a sec?” he called out, loathe to interrupt, but desperate to get an idea of what to do to make this day good for him and Lance.   
  
Shiro nodded, pressing soft kisses to Matt and Allura’s temples before he stood and stretched, heading over to Keith.   
  
“What’s up?” he asked, following Keith out of the room and into the hall.   
  
“I want to do something for Lance, but I don’t have any ideas,” Keith admitted, crossing his arms and sighing. “I just… Want to tell him how much I… you know, love him. But I can’t…” He groaned, running his hands through his hair and tugging gently on it.

Shiro grabbed his hands and took them from his hair with a stern look. “Keith, come on, don’t pull your hair. I’m pretty sure Lance would be upset to see your mullet missing,” he said, a bit of a tease to his tone.

Keith rolled his eyes, but shoved his hands in his pockets instead. “I just can’t word good.”

“Obviously.” Shiro chuckled, rubbing his chin. “Hm. You could sing for him? Your voice is incredible, Keith. He’d love it.”

Keith nodded slowly. “Yeah, okay. I don’t agree with you, but okay. It’s better than nothing. I wish I had a keyboard up here,” he sighed. “I know what song I want to sing.”

“Maybe Coran has something,” Shiro suggested, “Can’t hurt to ask.”

Keith nodded again. “Yeah. Thanks, Shiro. How do you always know what to do?”

“I don’t,” he replied, a bit deadpan, “I just have experience.”   
  
“Okay, okay. Thanks anyway. I hope this goes well,” Keith said, shifting anxiously.

“Hey.” Shiro’s Galra hand landed on Keith’s shoulder with a soft squeeze. “It’s gonna go well. Even if you stumble over the keys and the words, Lance is going to love it because it’s the thought that counts. He’s going to love it because he loves  _ you _ .”

Keith smiled, pulling Shiro into a hug. “Okay. I love him so much, you know?  I just feel like… He does so much for me, and I don’t give him, like, anything in return, except getting angry at him when he wears his  binder when he shouldn’t, or like, just sitting there while he rambles on and on about his family and I don’t  _ say _ anything? I don’t get what he sees in me.”

Shiro hugged him back, shaking his head with a laugh. “You know, Lance worries about the same things. He thinks he talks too much for you, or puts you on edge because he’s had a happy family and you didn’t.  He’s talked to me about you a lot, Keith. Trust me. He sees a lot in you. He doesn’t like it when you get angry, but he loves that you care about him enough to worry about his safety like that, especially when he disregards binding stuff. That you’re so invested in him and his health. You think you don’t do enough for him? He thinks he doesn’t do enough for you, Keith. Now, you guys should have this talk. I shouldn’t have butted in. But I think you needed to hear it.” He ruffled Keith’s hair. “Go get him, tiger.”

Keith almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but he  _ did _ believe it. He could picture Lance clearly in his head: coming up to Shiro, wringing his hands, worrying a mile a minute that he wasn’t doing enough for Keith, enough to make  _ Keith _ happy, and here Keith was worrying about the same things. It was ridiculous and cute all at once and Keith let out a sudden laugh, grinning up at Shiro.

“Thanks, Shiro. I really did need to hear that. We’re a pair of idiots,” he snorted, “But I love him. And I gotta tell him before tomorrow.”

Shiro nodded, grinning back. “Go get your boy,” he teased, “I’m going to get my partners. Hopefully.. Make this night a little less tense. Tomorrow is going to be tense enough.” His smile turned tired as he blew his hair out of his face. He’d kept it long this time - apparently Allura had liked the look, and Shiro found he couldn’t deny her that. And Matt loved playing with it, so win/win.

Keith nodded. “Yeah… Let’s just focus on tonight. It’s gonna be good,” he said, mostly to reassure himself. “I need to find Coran, though. You know where he is?”   
  
“I think he’s chatting with Kolivan. Probably having some nunvil in the kitchen… Which means Coran may not be entirely coherent, but… Good luck?” Shiro said with a sheepish grin.

Keith rolled his eyes, but nodded again and sped off, using his extra speed to get him a boost. The faster he figured out a keyboard, the better.

\-----

Quiznak. Keith hadn’t factored in his nerves for this at all. He shifted nervously as he waited for Lance to come to his room, the tablet with the space keyboard app downloaded onto it sitting propped on a stand so  _ he _ could stand and play. He swallowed the nerves back, or tried to. He hadn’t given himself time to think about how this could go wrong until now.

Too late to go back, though. The door hissed open and Lance popped in, his usual grin in place as he tapped his cane on the floor. Lance had ordered Chulatt to get as much rest as he could today in preparation for how much he’d need him tomorrow.

“So, what did my beautiful, gorgeous, absolute adonis of a man need me for?” Lance asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“You’re being liberal with the compliments on my physique,” he said dryly, “Well, pretty boy, I decided I wanted to do something romantic for you. Tomorrow is… Yeah. I don’t wanna focus on that, though. Tonight. It’s about us. And I wanted to do something because… You know I’m not good at words. So here. I’m using someone else’s.”

He took a deep breath. “Coran got me a keyboard, in a way, because I can play it, so this is all… All me.”

Another deep breath, and he began, playing the keys. Soft music filled the room and Lance turned to him eagerly, a look of surprise on his face, but quickly, excited awe took it over as he recognized the song.

_ “It's a little bit funny this feeling inside _

_ “I'm not one of those who can easily hide _

_ “I don't have much money but boy if I did _

_ “I'd buy a big house where we both could live.” _

Lance squirmed on the bed to get more comfortable, kicking off his shoes and letting Keith’s voice wash over him. God, it sounded so beautiful. Keith was just a beautiful person, inside and out. He loved him.

_ “My gift is my song _

_ “And this one's for you _

_ “And you can tell everybody this is your song _

_ “It may be quite simple but now that it's done _

_ “I hope you don't mind _

_ “I hope you don't mind _

_ “That I put down in words _

_ “How wonderful life is while you're in the world.” _

Okay, yeah, Lance was tearing up. His heart swelled with how much he loved Keith, the feeling infusing his entire being.

Keith noticed the tears and almost stuttered, but he didn’t lose his groove, continuing through the song. Lance was still smiling, and Shiro had told him that Lance was probably going to happy-cry. Not that he’d had to be told, but it was nice to have confirmation that he wasn’t the only one that thought that would happen. God, he was happy, too. He’d put that smile on Lance’s face, wet as it was. Lance clearly loved what was happening, and Keith’s heart soared. 

At the end, he quietly stepped over to Lance, sitting by him. “So...?”

“Keith, that was perfect,” Lance said, voice cracking as he launched across the small space Keith had left between them to tangle his boyfriend in a hug. “I love you so, so much. That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. Your voice is amazing, I had no idea you could play like that? That’s so cool. God, you fucking  _ serenaded _ me, that’s so cheesy but perfect and I loved it, Keith. Freaking… Elton John, really? I loved it.” He buried his face in Keith’s neck, sniffing loudly.

Keith held him, rubbing his back and feeling pleased. “I’m glad you liked it so much… I love you too,” he managed to whisper. Everything felt so, so right. So perfect. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been just… so happy. And  _ only _ happy. Plenty of happy things had happened to him, but they were usually accompanied with questions and anxiety. But not this. Oh, not this. 

Lance eventually pulled back, just enough to lift his head and give Keith a sweet kiss. It was a little off center and sloppy, but neither Lance nor Keith gave a fuck. It was perfect because it was just for them.   
  
"I'm scared about tomorrow, but you... You just helped that a whole lot," Lance admitted, nuzzling Keith gently, "We're gonna kick ass, man."   
  
Keith chuckled softly. "Hell yeah, we will. And we'll do it together." He squeezed Lance's hand comfortingly and they stayed together until morning came.   



	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update because these two chapters, well... to be honest, the two chapters i'm uploading today are fairly short, even though they focus on shalluratt and hotor's goodbyes, essentially. there's so much angst you guys.
> 
> But hey. We're almost done. We're almost out of here. Friday, 3 days away, is it. You'll get the final chapter, I'll be able to post it, and be free to write on other things than this monster, lmao. I love this fic to pieces but I can't wait to write other things.
> 
> Please R&R and enjoy your week <3

Shiro wandered back to Allura and Matt after his talk with Keith, sighing softly. It was easy enough to give advice to someone else, but giving himself that same advice? Not so much. He wasn't sure if there was anything he could or even _should_ do for Allura and Matt, or if they'd prefer to not make a big fuss. It was probably too late to even try, he mused sadly.  
  
"Hey. How was the talk with Keith?" Matt asked when Shiro came back, crawling into his lap immediately. Hey, Shiro's lap was the most comfortable place in the universe to sit. But Allura's chest was the better pillow. "Did you calm down his 'oh shit I gotta be cool for Lance' nerves?"  
  
Shiro laughed softly, throwing an arm over Allura's shoulders and cradling Matt close with his other arm. "Yeah, I think so. I at least gave him a good idea."  
  
"Good," Allura beamed, snuggling up into Shiro's side, "I hope they have a good night. But now... Well, it's time for your surprise, Kashi."  
  
Shiro blinked.  
  
Matt grinned. "Yeah, Allura and I put together something for you, so come on." He stood up and pulled Shiro from his seat, Allura standing with him.  
  
"Ah, blindfold first," Allura reminded him, pulling a strip of silky cloth from her pocket.  
  
 _Where the quiznak_ _are her pockets_? Shiro mused as he allowed her to tie the cloth around his eyes.  
  
"Okay, guys, where are you taking me? Can I at least guess?" he asked as two different hands took his, gently and carefully leading him.  
  
"Well, nobody put a gag in your mouth, so you can guess all you want," Matt said casually, "But you know, if you want _answers_ , that's a different story, because neither of us are giving it away."  
  
"You're too literal," Shiro groaned, pouting at him as he was led through the maze of corridors.  
  
"And you're too eager to find out," Allura said primly, "You'll see when we get there."  
  
Sighing, Shiro shut his mouth, content to just find out when they were good and ready to tell him.  
  
He wasn't ready at all for what he saw when Allura untied the cloth. They'd closed off the observatory and blacked out the windows, projecting the constellations of the Milky Way on said windows. His breath hitched as he turned in a slow circle in the center of the room. _Big and Little Dippers. Orion. Canis Major. Leo, Pegasus, Cassiopeia._ Home.  
  
It felt like he was home.  
  
Fuck, he was crying. He sniffed and wiped at his eyes. "You guys," he whispered, trying not to let his voice crack, "Thank you so much..."  
  
Matt and Allura rushed him in a hug.  
  
"Of course, Kashi. We couldn't just... go into tomorrow without giving you a glimpse of home first. Let me tell you, getting all the stars right from my memory was a pain in the ass, even with Altean memory tech," Matt said with a laugh, going on tiptoe to press a soft kiss to Shiro's lips.  
  
Allura snickered. "It was pretty bad," she said, eyes sparkling with mirth, "But he was determined. I was too. I wanted to see your home very badly. I know it's not exactly like seeing it from Earth, but I really am happy to see that you like it anyway."  
  
"Like it? No, I love it," Shiro said, kissing her, "I just wish I had something for you."

"You don't need anything for us, Kashi," Allura said, looking over the constellations, "This? This is enough for us. Seeing you happy."   
  
"This is just as much for me as it is for you," Matt added, "I miss home, too. And even if it's not real... Seeing home and standing here with you? It's the closest I'm gonna get, depending on what happens tomorrow. So... It's enough, Kashi."   
  
"At this rate, my tears aren't going to stop, you jerks," he whispered, the tease half-hearted as he kept wiping at his eyes, "I love you both so much..."   
  
They both chuckled a bit, moving to stand to his sides and let him wrap his arms around them.    
  
"I'm glad you do," Allura said softly, "I love you both as well. Whatever happens tomorrow... We'll have this."   
  
"Mhm. I love you guys so crazy much. Let's just live in the moment tonight, huh? Tomorrow will come soon enough and we can worry then," Matt murmured, shifting to hold Allura's hand behind Shiro's back.   
  
"Yeah, that sounds pretty smart to me." Shiro smiled, staring up at the stars of home. Yeah, he was pretty damn happy right here and he wasn't going to let the possibilities of tomorrow ruin his moment.  _ Their _ moment.   



	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like the previous note said - three more days til the last chapter. Exciting, huh? Please R&R and enjoy your week <3

Hunk sighed as he chewed on one of the Olkari's berry bars they'd taught him to make. He'd added his own twists to make the recipe his own in a way and man, they tasted good, but tomorrow loomed in his mind, driving up his anxiety. They all knew the plans, they'd rehearsed it dozens of times, and now it was just the calm before the storm.    
  
Of course, for Hunk, that calm wasn't  _ calm _ by any means. He was stressing.  _ Hard _ . The fresh berry bars were delicious, though, so he tried to focus on them, but the thoughts slipped away the harder he tried to distract himself. Fuck, he was feeling dizzy and his heart rate was jumping.  _ Stupid anxiety attacks. _ _   
_   
A hand on his shoulder startled him and he shouted, whipping around and ready to fight but the fight instantly left him at seeing Lotor's concerned face. "Oh, hey, Lotor," he said in a squeak, trying to calm his heart rate after being terrified for a moment.   
  
Lotor's brows knitted together and he stepped forward, taking Hunk's free hand. "Hey. Are you feeling okay? No, what a silly question, I can see you were working yourself into an anxiety attack. Worried about tomorrow?"   
  
Hunk nodded slowly, sighing and squeezing Lotor's hand. "Yeah. Really worried. I can't stop thinking about it and getting myself worked up," he admitted weakly, feeling more calmed by having Lotor's hand as an anchor, "I just... There are  _ so many things _ that could go wrong tomorrow, Lotor, and I am  __ freaking out , man. We could all die and nothing will work and Zarkon will keep destroying things and he'll come after Earth and my moms could die -"

" _ Hawea. _ "   
  
Hunk jerked at the use of his actual given name, shutting up and staring at Lotor in shock.   
  
Lotor smiled. "We are going to be fine. We have the Paladins of Voltron, me, the Blades, the Coalition. We have literal trillions of people on our side, even if only a small amount are going to be fighting. We have the best of the best. Tomorrow, Zarkon is going to die. Tomorrow, the Galra Empire will stop terrorizing the universe. Tomorrow, none of  _ us _ are going to die. I have been training for nearly ten thousand years while Zarkon sits on his ass. He  _ is _ going to lose. After that... Well, there's going to be chaos, but we are going to win and save the universe from destruction. And then we are going to clean up and you will get to visit home. Your moms are going to be safe."   
  
Hunk let Lotor reassure him, his breathing and heart rates slowing back down to normal. He relaxed with an explosive sigh, shifting forward to lean into Lotor's chest and bury his face in Lotor's neck. "Thank you, Lotor. I needed that." He laughed weakly. "I really hope that's all going to be true."   
  
Lotor hugged him tightly, pressing a kiss to Hunk's temple. "It's going to be. We'll get through it. Now come on, my love. I think we should enjoy the night we have before tomorrow, hm? How does a massage sound?"   
  
"Oh, man, a massage sounds perfect," Hunk groaned, letting go of Lotor to put his berry bar down. "Thanks, man. I love you."   
  
Lotor flushed a soft pink as he always did when Hunk said that, smiling back. "I love you too. Come on," he said, taking Hunk's hand.    
  
They went down to Lotor's quarters and Hunk removed his shirt, laying on the bed face down with practiced ease. This was one of the things they frequently did for each other, and Hunk  _ loved _ it whether he was giving or receiving.   
  
Lotor smiled, admiring Hunk's body for a moment before straddling Hunk's waist, getting the massage oil from the nightstand's drawer and starting at Hunk's neck. "Relax, Hawea. Tonight is for us, no matter what we do," he whispered.   
  
Hunk mumbled an agreement, letting Lotor help him relax. Man, he loved this. It was quiet and soft and loving. Lotor was such a sweetheart, honestly. Hunk's heart just melted around him.   
  
Slowly, Lotor worked all the way down Hunk's back, working out knots. When he finished and wiped the oil off, he was almost startled out of the bed by Hunk's snore. Stifling a laugh, he wiped his hands clean and gently took off Hunk's shoes and pants so he wouldn't be uncomfortable. Changing into his own pajamas, he crawled into bed beside his love and watched his sleeping face with adoration and fierce protection.   
  
_ I swear on my life, Hawea, I will make sure you can return home to your family. _


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ouo what's this? the last chapter FUCK YEAH IT'S THE FINAL CHAPTER. Oh my god. This is so exciting to upload, guys. I'm just. Holy crap!! I hope you guys like it :D Please R&R and enjoy your weekend!

Today was the day. This was actually it this time. Lance suited up slowly, up earlier than normal. Today was the day they could all die or win a victory. And Lance was pretty sure they were all terrified but only acting like they weren't so they could just get in and  _ do it _ .

Lance sighed, listening to Keith, still sleeping peacefully.  _ We’re not gonna fucking die _ , he thought determinedly,  _ Not when we’ve got plenty to live for. _

Going without his binder was always hard for him, but he didn’t want to deal with not being able to breathe in the middle of the big, hopefully pretty final, battle. At least his armor covered him up well enough. Blue purred comfortingly in his mind and he let her chilly calm permeate his mindstate as he padded back over to the bed and nudged Keith awake.

“Mmphf,” Keith groaned, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. 

Lance snickered. “Good morning sleeping beauty,” he teased, “Come on, suit up so we can go to breakfast and get this freaking day over with, yeah?”

Keith grumbled under his breath. He wasn’t a morning person, at all. Not with Lance already out of bed, anyway. But he got up and suited up quickly, taking Lance’s hand.

“I love you,” he said as they walked to the kitchen.

“I love you too,” Lance replied, squeezing Keith’s hand.

Chulatt chittered on his shoulder.

“I love you too, Chulatt,” Lance chuckled, petting the mouse with his free hand. “You ready for today?”

_ :Yessir! We can do this!: _

“He said yes,” Lance said aloud for Keith’s benefit.

“He better be,” Keith said lightly, grinning at the mouse, “It’s happening.”

Chulatt huffed and Keith snickered.

_ :I told you I’m ready. Hmph. Lance, your mate is mean.: _

“Oh my God, what did you do, Keith,” Lance snorted, laughing softly, “He called you mean!”

“All I did was look at him!” Keith protested immediately, shoving at the kitchen door.

“What are you guys arguing about  _ now _ ?” Pidge asked, sounding bored as she ate her breakfast. 

Thankfully, they wouldn’t have food goo. Not on this (their possibly last) day. They’d gotten some Olkari food for this morning.

“Keith’s being mean to Chulatt!” Lance exclaimed immediately, causing Keith to groan and drag his hands down his face. 

“Chulatt, please tell Lance all I did was look at you and be snarky, holy shit.”

Chulatt chittered angrily, but poutily told Lance it was true.

“So Keith was being normal,” Hunk said, laughing softly as he put more breakfast plates down, “Come on, guys, eat.”

“Where’s Shalluratt?” Lance asked as he swung himself into his chair, poking at his plate curiously before Chulatt showed him what was on it so he could eat.

Lotor blinked, looking over at Lance in confusion. “I’m sorry,  _ who _ ?”

“Shiro, Allura, and Matt, except it’s faster to mash their names together,” Lance explained.

Shiro snorted. “We are also in the room, just behind you.”

Lance grinned. “Well hey,” he said cheerfully, not bothering to turn around and enjoying Matt’s snickers. Allura was probably just as baffled as Lotor.

“Okay, so, that’s obviously their ship name, then,” Pidge mused, looking over Keith and Lance. “What are you guys, then? Leith? Klance? Your names are kinda hard to mash nicely.”

“I like Klance,” Lance said smugly.

“Yeah, cause it’s mostly  _ your _ name,” Keith grumbled. “But fine.”

“Okay, but, what does that make Lotor and me?” Hunk asked, finishing setting out plates and sitting beside Lotor.

“Lotunk?” Pidge suggested, scrunching up her face in thought.

“Nah, sounds weird,” Hunk disagreed.

“How about Hotor?” Keith put in as he ate slowly.

“I like that version,” Lotor said, “It doesn’t demean Hunk’s actual name.”

Hunk blushed. “Aw, babe. That’s sweet.” He leaned into Lotor’s side as they ate, letting the silly discussion put his nerves at ease.

“I didn’t know Hunk even had a real name,” Matt teased.

“Hawea,” Hunk murmured, “That’s it.”

“Hey-uh-way-uh?” Matt repeated, sounding it out to make sure he had it.

Hunk nodded. “Yup. But it’s easier for people to call me Hunk.”

Lotor snorted. “I prefer calling you by your real name.”

“Again, that’s really sweet,” Hunk said happily, turning to kiss Lotor’s cheek. A pink blush spread over Lotor’s face and Hunk grinned.

“Okay, but the real question? Is do the couples within Shalluratt get their own ship names, too,” Lance interrupted, mouth full.

“Hmm. Alluratt for Matt and me?” Allura suggested, “Just drop the ‘sh’ bit.”

“Yeah, alright,” Lance agreed.”

“Hey, now, if I’m always coming last here, I  _ don’t _ want Shiro and me to be  _ Shatt _ ,” Matt said with a disgusted noise.

The Humans broke out into peals of laughter almost immediately, Keith and Lance leaning on each other for support, Hunk leaning into Lotor, Shiro barely holding himself up, and Pidge just straight up rolling around on the floor.

“What’s so funny?” Allura asked, brow furrowing.

“The term ‘shat’ is like the past tense of shit,” Hunk explained as he tried to quell his laughter for the moment.

“ _ Oh. _ ”

“I’m  _ so _ calling you guys Shatt!” Pidge howled, crawling back into her chair.

Shiro finally managed to muffle his laughter and kiss Matt’s temple. “Don’t worry about it, Matt.”

“You think it’s funny,” he grumbled petulantly.

“It  _ is _ . I absolutely love it. It’s like a meme, man, come on,” Shiro ribbed, “Let’s be Shatt.”

Matt groaned, unable to stop a small laugh as he leaned on Shiro. “I’d rather be Miro or Mattashi or something, but fine. You big beefy jerk.”

“So that makes Shiro and Allura… Shallura? I mean, that way all the ship names are pretty much right there in the big one. Shalluratt,” Keith pointed out.

Lance nodded. “I like it,” he said brightly as he finished eating.

_ Oh. He’d finished eating. _ Had anyone else? Was it time? It had to be… 

As if reading Lance’s thoughts, Keith gripped Lance’s hand. “It’s gonna be okay, Lance. We’re gonna make it,” he whispered.

Lance smiled. “Yeah. Okay.”

\-----

Lance screamed as he dived onto the central command ship, blasting the ion cannon with ice as Keith attacked the other with fire, melting it as thoroughly as Lance froze his. 

“FUCK YOU, ZARKON!”

Keith snickered, using Red’s claws to shred into the hull. “DIE, BITCH!”

Shiro didn’t have any energy to yell at them for their language as he blasted warrior pods out of the - well, not… sky, exactly?  The vacuum of space? Eh, who cared what it was called. He was destroying the enemy. He smirked as another one bit the dust, deciding to let go. If he was probably going to die here anyway… Fuck it.

“Take that, you fucking sons of bitches!” he howled. Black purred appreciatively.

Pidge screeched her delight at hearing Shiro swear as she took out more pods. “Suck my huge dick, you bastards!”

Hunk sighed at them, but smirked as he fired lasers at the underbelly of Zarkon’s ship, opening it up for the Blades and Coalition members to dive in and save prisoners while taking out soldiers and sentries.

“Take that, jackasses!” he called out, exhilarated by the freedom. It was a battle, it was intense and terrifying, but hey, he may as well have a little fun.

Their team was swarming central command, Zarkon’s forces outside it unable to reach them due to the barrier that most of their allies had created around them. They kept any of the warships at bay, destroying them before they could even get close to Voltron and the core group of Coalition and Blades members as they smashed their way towards Zarkon.

Lotor dived in through one of the holes that Keith made with Red, taking his battle to on foot. He slashed through sentries and soldiers alike as he made his way to Zarkon.

He knew the paladins had begun following him after they’d finished taking out the exterior weapons on central command, so he wasn’t worried about being hit from behind as he focused on cutting a path to Zarkon - he had backup. And they had crazy superpowers now. He could feel the blasts of fire and ice, see as the vines grew along the walls rapidly to catch up to him and tangle those he fought. Watch as Shiro teleported all over, taking people out from behind. Grin as Hunk let them punch him and didn’t even move for them to crumple to the ground in pain.

Getting to the throne room, he paused for a moment, confused to see Zarkon sitting patiently on his throne.

“Your time has come to and end,” he snarled, raising his sword.

“Is that so?” Zarkon asked, smirking as he stood, raising his own sword. “Lotor, my beloved son, you are a nitwit.”

Haggar stepped out from the shadows, but Lotor didn’t waver, even as she lifted her hands, black magic crackling from her fingers.

“I have never been your beloved son. Both of you will pay for your crimes against the universe.”

“Oh? And who is going to bring that justice? Certainly not you,” Zarkon said, lunging into the fight. 

Lotor parried and struck, dancing out of the way of each of Zarkon’s blows. He struggled to keep up enough to avoid dying, worried about Haggar and what she was doing as more and more magic built up and crackled around her.

At one point when he glanced at her, he missed. Zarkon’s blow struck him, sword whistling through the air and cutting through Lotor’s midsection.

A piercing scream rang out, horrified, and Lotor glanced over to see - Haggar was  _ freezing over _ ?? Oh, right… Lance. He smirked slightly as Lance stepped out from behind Haggar’s body, Hunk tumbling in from the side door. Hunk didn’t look over to Lotor, not yet, not when Haggar was still technically alive - a single punch was all it took and she shattered into - well, several larger pieces, but most definitely dead.

A burst of magic exploded from her body and sent a wave out into the universe, but Lance didn’t have time to worry about that. He shot his rifle at Zarkon, who ducked, but Lance had expected that and aimed lower. The shot caught Zarkon in the neck and he gagged.

Lotor, even as pain coursed through his body, lifted his sword and sliced Zarkon’s head clean from his shoulders to ensure he was truly dead. Then he fell to his knees beside his father’s body, 

“Fuck! Lotor, shit,” Lance cursed, racing over and kneeling by Lotor. Chulatt squeaked worriedly on his shoulder and he winced at seeing the wound up close. Hunk wasn’t too far behind, falling to Lotor’s other side and cradling Lotor’s head in his hands.

“What? Lance, what’s going? What happened to Lotor?” Pidge asked over the comms, bewildered by the sudden silence, “And uh… It seems all the Galra dropped dead. Not the Blades! But like, the ones who must have been under corrupt quintessence.”

Lance swallowed nervously and Lotor smiled weakly. 

“The sword didn’t cut into my stomach or lungs,” he said softly, “I would know. But I’m fairly certain it’s hit a kidney, maybe my liver.”

“Okay, well, either way we’re getting you to a healing pod. Oh God. Shiro, buddy I need you at my location so you can teleport Lotor,” Lance said tersely, “He’s badly hurt but if we get to a pod soon enough?”

“Coming.”

“We’re not losing you,” Hunk said determinedly, “We’ve not come this far just to lose you.”

Lotor smiled, more strongly this time. “I couldn’t possibly worry when I have you, Hawea.”

Hunk grinned weakly, leaning to press a soft kiss to Lotor’s lips. “That’s sweet of you.”

Shiro sprinted into the room (followed by the others) and gently picked up Lotor, riding his thoughts out to the med-bay as they teleported him and Lotor to safety and healing. He popped back the moment Lotor was safely squared away.

“So what happened?” Lance asked Keith as he looked around the throne room, “I killed Haggar, and there was a bust of energy, and then… Pidge said all the Galra  _ died _ ?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah, it was creepy. They all just… dropped when that energy blast swept past us. I guess it was corrupted quintessence backlash?”

“That’d be my guess, too,” Shiro added, crossing his arms. “It was definitely strange… To think that just like that, it’s all over?”

“The  _ worst _ is over,” Pidge said, “I refuse to believe that this is just…  _ all _ done. There’s no ruler over the Galra, and even Galra who may not have necessarily supported Zarkon or gotten fed CQ might be sympathetic to his cause and be gearing up to take the throne.  _ And _ we don’t know how far out that blast went. It could have been consolidated to the immediate area and there still could be more warships on the way.”

“Let’s not worry about that until that Kral Zera thing get scheduled,” Lance said tiredly, “For now, can we just… clean up, get back to the Castleship, and recover?” He turned to Shiro, eyes pleading.

Shiro hummed and looked around them. “All of them are dead. I don’t see why we can’t go back and get ready for what may come next by resting. I’m sure Kolivan and some of the others wouldn’t mind taking up the ‘cleaning duty’ mantle.”

Keith snorted. Shiro was wrong, but he wasn’t about to say that and accidentally guilt-trip him. “He’ll help. After all, we kinda cut the battle short, huh?”

Lance laughed. “Hell yeah we did. If more warships  _ do _ show up, we’ll be ready, but we can’t stay in battle mode forever. We should rest while we can.”

And with that the Paladins got in their lions and flew back to the place that become their home in space, taking this chance to recover and regroup with their allies and discuss alterations to their plans for if others showed up. How far the backlash reached. Who might show up to the Kral Zera.

No more battle was had that day, and the Paladins had a long stretch of time - two whole weeks - to just… take a break.

After the rest of the day exhausting Lance with meetings and other boring-but-necessary junk, he fall onto the couch and groaned, letting Chulatt go to go do mousey things and stop hogging his eyes. He stared up at the ceiling, left arm dangling off the couch and right arm draped over his stomach.

Keith came over and straddled Lance’s lap, moving his arm to rest against Lance’s chest and throwing said arm around himself.

Lance squawked, pushing at Keith in embarrassment. “Keith, I’m not - I’m not in my…”

Keith sputtered and nuzzled into Lance’s neck. “Like we haven’t cuddled in bed without your binder on.”

“Yeah, but…” Lance sighed as he trailed off, shifting to hold Keith to him with both arms. “I don’t know. Just.. instinct for me to freak out. Sorry.”

Keith hummed, skimming his nose along Lance’s collarbone. “Yeah. It’s okay, babe. Hey. We made it out alive, huh? I love you so freaking much…”

Lance blushed. “I love you too… God, I’m so happy…” 

“Yeah. Me too.”

Lance fell silent, and they relaxed together, comfortable with each other. They’d saved the universe. They had a long time to just.. Be themselves, now, before they had to get back to business, save the universe in a different way, and… maybe they could go home.

Yeah, Lance liked that thought, and it was easy to think positive thoughts with Keith snuggling him like this. Loving and uncaring about his body, caring for  _ more _ about Lance’s soul. Yeah. Good day. He smiled and let himself fall asleep, dreaming of the better times to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we're done. man. what a ride. well! now I'm uploading the next three pieces right away. they're porn oneshots involving, of course, our favorite couples. they're going to be uploaded as whole separate stories literally right after I hit the button to post this, so hopefully your weekend is _really_ good, what with this last chapter and then that good ol' porn after :3c
> 
> Also, if you noticed the line that was a shoutout to 80s voltron, you're awesome


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